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🔬 Wing Veins and Metabolic Rates

An interactive 3D wing-venation and metabolic-physiology lab comparing honey bee races through cubital index, discoidal shift, thermogenesis and immune response.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DModerate60 FPS

A pinned honey bee specimen reveals three hidden physiological measurements at once: forewing vein geometry (cubital index and discoidal shift), thoracic thermogenesis, and abdominal immune response.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Race identification relies on measurable, invisible-to-the-eye traits rather than colour alone: the ratio of two forewing vein segments (cubital index), the tilt of the discoidal vein, cold-driven metabolic thermogenesis, and encapsulation immune responses.

🎮 How to Use

Pick a race to change its wing venation and physiology. Lower the ambient temperature to watch thoracic shivering thermogenesis intensify, toggle the vein overlay to see the cubital-index measurement, and trigger an immune challenge to watch encapsulation nodules form.

💡 Did You Know?

Before DNA testing, wing morphometry (via the "Discriminant Analysis with Wing characters" method) was the standard way researchers screened honey bee populations for hybridisation with foreign races.

⚙ Under the hood

An interactive 3D pinned-specimen lab where a honey bee model shows race-specific forewing vein geometry (cubital index, discoidal shift) via a dynamic canvas-drawn overlay, plus a physically responsive glowing thorax for cold-driven metabolic thermogenesis and abdominal nodules for a simulated immune-encapsulation response.

morphometricswing venationbee physiologythermoregulationimmune responserace identification

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