In addition, the polypeptide melittin is also antigenic. Bumblebee venom appears to be chemically and antigenically related to honeybee venom.Bees with barbed stingers can often sting other insects without harming themselves. Queen honeybees and bees of many other species, including bumblebees and many solitary bees, have smoother stingers with smaller barbs, and can sting mammals repeatedly.The stings injection of apitoxin into the victim is accompanied by the release of alarm pheromones, a process which is accelerated if the bee is fatally injured. The release of alarm pheromones near a hive may attract other bees to the location, where they will likewise exhibit defensive behaviors until there is no longer a threat, typically because the victim has either fled or been killed. (Note: A bee swarm, seen as a mass of bees flying or clumped together, is generally not hostile; it has deserted its hive and has no comb or young to defend.) These pheromones do not dissipate or wash off quickly, and if their target enters water, bees will resume their attack as soon as it leaves the water. The alarm pheromone emitted when a bee stings another animal smells like a banana.Drone bees, the males, are larger and do not have stingers. The female bees (worker bees and queens) are the only ones that can sting, and their stinger is a modified ovipositor. The queen bee has a barbed but smoother stinger and can, if need be, sting skin-bearing creatures multiple times, but the queen does not leave the hive under normal conditions.
Central nervous system
Common
drowsiness
mental confusion
insomnia
headache
ataxia

Rare
paranoid psychosis
increased libido
exacerbation of depression

Gastrointestinal
dyspepsia
vomiting
nausea
cramps
constipation
diarrhea
stomach pain
loss of appetite
weight loss
gum enlargement
swelling of tongue
abnormal liver function

Genitourinary
microscopic hematuria
vaginal bleeding

Blood
The following can occur with or without bone marrow loss:

pancytopenia
agranulocytosis
leukopenia
eosinophilia

Skin
urticaria
systemic lupus erythematosus
Stevens–Johnson syndrome
hirsutism
pruritic erythematous rashes

Eyes
myopia

Drug interactions
Valproates can either decrease or increase the levels of ethosuximide; however, combinations of valproates and ethosuximide had a greater protective index than either drug alone.It may elevate serum phenytoin levels. Mechanism of action
The mechanism by which ethosuximide affects neuronal excitability includes block of T-type calcium channels, and may include effects of the drug on other classes of ion channel. The primary finding that ethosuximide is a T-type calcium channel blocker gained widespread support, but initial attempts to replicate the finding were inconsistent. Subsequent experiments on recombinant T-type channels in cell lines demonstrated conclusively that ethosuximide blocks all T-type calcium channel isoforms. Significant T-type calcium channel density occurs in dendrites of neurons, and recordings from reduced preparations that strip away this dendritic source of T-type calcium channels may have contributed to reports of ethosuximide ineffectiveness. In March 1989, Coulter, Huguenard and Prince showed that ethosuximide and dimethadione, both effective anti-absence agents, reduced low-threshold Ca2+ currents in T-type calcium channels in freshly removed thalamic neurons. In June of that same year, they also found the mechanism of this reduction to be voltage-dependent, using acutely dissociated neurons of rats and guinea pigs; it was also noted that valproic acid, which is also used in absence seizures, did not do that.