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🦠 The Honey Bee Gut Microbiome

A 3D cutaway of a honey bee gut showing how core bacterial species colonise the ileum and rectum, and how stress, diet and pathogens shift the balance.

Biology3DModerate60 FPS

A 3D cutaway of a worker bee's digestive tract showing the core bacterial community that lines the ileum and rectum, and how stress, diet and invading pathogens shift the balance between them.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Core hindgut bacteria (amber) grow toward a diversity-dependent ceiling and actively suppress pathogens (red) trying to colonise the midgut — a simplified model of colonisation resistance.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust microbiome diversity, pesticide/antibiotic stress and pathogen pressure, and switch the forage diet, then watch the bacterial coverage and colony health respond in real time.

💡 Did You Know?

Newly emerged worker bees are born with a nearly sterile gut and acquire their core microbiome within days by contact with nestmates and hive material — it isn't inherited from the queen.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D cutaway of a honey bee gut showing how core bacterial species colonise the ileum and rectum, and how stress, diet and pathogens shift the balance.

beesmicrobiomegut-healthbacteriaanimalsscienceThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install