Bees - Bee Families, Solitary Bees, Social Bees, Honey Bees, Beekeeping, Killer Bees
ants species wasps hymenoptera
Bees belong to the insect order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps and ants. Its name is derived from Greek, meaning "winged membrane," and it is the third largest group of insects with more than a hundred thousand species in the order. Ants and bees play vital roles in agriculture, ants being useful in aerating soil and bees in pollinating plants. Wasps play an important part as predators to other insect pests and bees are the source of honey and wax, which have been highly valued by human beings since antiquity.
Hymenoptera are distinguished by having two pair of wings that are veined in cross angles creating a cell-like pattern. The rear wings are smaller than the front ones, and wing color ranges from brown with yellow markings to red, white, blue, or green marks. Male Hymenoptera have 13 segments in their antennae, while females have only 12. Most Hymenopterons have chewing mouthparts with a pair of mandibles, but bees have a long tongue (proboscis) to lap nectar. Bees have a complete, four-stage metamorphosis from egg, larva, pupa, to adult. Some species of bees, as well as ants and some wasps, form colonies under a caste system, while other species are solitary.
Additional Topics
The more than 20,000 species of bees are assigned to the superfamily Apoidea, which includes eight families. The diversity of bees includes the yellow-faced, plasterer, oxaeid, andrenid, sweat, melittid, leafcutting, mason, cuckoo, digger, carpenter, bumble, and honey bees. The latter two are the most common and both belong to the family Apidae. Bees are characterized by the vein pattern on their …
Among the solitary bees, where each queen bee builds her own nest, there is sometimes evidence of a division of labor. Some of the bee families are more sociable than others and build their nests close to one another and may even share the same entrance to the nests. In such cases, a bee might stand guard at the entrance of the group of nests to protect them from predators. This is not the same so…
Honey bees and bumble bees are two of the 500 species of bees which are social. Their colonies or hives range in size from several hundred to as many as 80,000 inhabitants. They are organized within a rigid caste system, where members of a caste carry out specific tasks. The social system consists of a queen bee, male drones, and worker bees. The queen bee is responsible for laying eggs, which the…
The social structure of honey bees is the caste system of queen, drones, and workers. Unlike the stingless bee, the honey bee queen is the one to leave the old colony to form a new one. The move to a new nest begins with a swarming of bees and ends when a suitable place, such as the hollow in a tree, is found to establish a new colony. A young queen will take over the old colony. Of interest to en…
References to bees and honey can be found in early civilizations from the Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks, Romans, and Mayans in the warmer climates to Celts, Slavs, and Northern Europe in colder climates. Honey as a sweetener was valued even in areas where sugar was available. A number of these early civilizations held the bee and its honey in high regard, using the bee as a sym…
During the mid-1950s, a hybrid African honey bee was accidentally released in Brazil. This bee was more aggressive than the European honey bee and by the mid- 1960s had gained the name of "killer bee." The African bee was introduced by Warwick Kerr in Brazil in an attempt to find a bee that was more suitable to the climate. This bee was found to be more productive than other bees and…
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