system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Do bees know that they will die if they sting a human? Or is just a natural response when in danger?

Also to add to this, why do they die when they lose their stinger?
gpt
I don't think bees have existential thoughts about the consequences of using their stingers.

Bees can be classified as a super-organism where individual members cannot thrive on their own. It requires a whole hive of bees for survival and reproduction. Each bee is like a cell in the "body" known as a hive. Like our white blood cells that will attack foreign particles and end up dying, forming pus, bees will attack invaders as a natural response.

Bees die when their barbed stingers are embedded. Since the stinger is stuck, when the bee pulls at the stinger, it actually breaks off the back part of it's abdomen. The stinger remains with some organs that keep pumping the venom as well as parts of it's digestive track. The bee cannot survive without that part of their body so they eventually die.