Bees

Bees belong to the order Hymenoptera and family Apidae. The body is 8-20 mm long, yellowish brown or dark brown, with dense hairs. The head and chest are nearly as wide. The antennae are knee-shaped, the compound eyes are oval and hairy, the mouthparts are chewing and sucking, and the hind legs are powder-carrying feet. Two pairs of membranous wings; the forewings are large and the hind wings are small, and the front and rear wings are linked by hooks. The abdomen is nearly oval, with less body hair than the chest, and there are pincers at the end of the abdomen. Bees undergo complete metamorphosis and go through four stages of life: egg, larvae, pupa and adult.

In bee society, they still live a matriarchal clan life. Among the members of the large family of their group, there is a queen bee (queen bee), which is a reproductive female bee who is responsible for laying eggs and reproducing offspring, and at the same time "ruling" the large family. Although the queen bee has mated, not all the eggs she lays are fertilized. According to the needs of the large group family, it can lay fertilized eggs that will develop into female bees (non-reproductive worker bees) in the future; it can also lay unfertilized eggs that will develop into drone bees in the future. When the large family members of this group multiply too much and cause overcrowding, they will be divided into groups. The process of swarming is as follows: the worker bees create a special hive - the queen's nest, where the queen bee lays fertilized eggs; after the larvae hatch, the worker bees are given special treatment and fed with the highly nutritious royal jelly produced in their bodies. Hey, when this little larva develops into an adult, it will become a new queen bee with reproductive capacity. The new queen bee will lead some worker bees to fly to establish a new colony. Apis cerana Fabr. and A. mellifera L. are both commonly raised beneficial insects. During the breeding process, after the new queen bee is born, it must be manually divided into groups. Otherwise, a queen bee will lead a group of worker bees to fly away from the hive and the colony will be lost. Beekeepers use artificial methods to produce royal jelly. In fact, they make some artificial royal jelly and put it in the beehive for the queen bee to lay eggs. When the larvae hatch and the worker bees are fed with royal jelly, the beekeeper will take out the royal jelly. . In fact, beekeepers use deception, which shows that even smart bees are sometimes deceived.

There are many drones, perhaps nearly a thousand in a group. The only duty of the drone is to mate with the queen bee. During the mating, the queen flies out of the nest and is followed by the drones in the swarm. This is called a nuptial flight. The queen bee selects a mate through flight competition, and only the winner becomes the mate. After mating, the drone's genitals fall off into the queen bee's genitals. At this time, the drone completes its life mission and dies. Those drones that failed to mate with the queen returned to the hive and only knew how to eat and drink, but did not know how to collect honey, becoming redundant lazy bees in the bee colony. As time goes by, the Gongfeng will expel them. Beekeepers are also unwilling to keep too many drones in the colony and consume honey, so they are artificially culled. From this point of view,

Worker bees are the most numerous in this group. The number of worker bees that beekeepers maintain in a bee colony varies depending on the season, but is generally between 20,000 and 50,000 worker bees. Worker bees are the most industrious. The children's song "little bees, busy all day long, collecting nectar and making honey" only refers to worker bees. In addition to collecting pollen and making honey, worker bees also have tasks such as building nests, feeding larvae, cleaning the environment, and defending the colony. From spring to late autumn, when plants are blooming, bees are busy every day. Winter is the only short period of leisure for bees. However, cold weather and low temperatures in the hive are detrimental to bees, because bees are cold-blooded animals, and their body temperature changes with the temperature of the surrounding environment. The extraordinarily intelligent little bee has come up with a special way to resist the cold. When the temperature in the hive is as low as 13°C, they move closer to each other in the hive and form spherical clusters. The lower the temperature, the tighter the clusters, which reduces the surface area of ??the hive and increases the density to prevent excessive cooling. According to measurements, at the coldest time, the temperature inside the bee ball can still be maintained at around 24°C. At the same time, they also eat more honey and exercise more to generate heat to increase the temperature inside the nest. When the weather is cold, the surface temperature of the bee ball is lower than that of the center of the ball. At this time, the bees on the surface of the good ball drill toward the center of the ball, while the bees in the center of the ball move outward. In this way, they take care of each other, constantly exchange positions, and survive the cold weather. Winter. How do they eat the honey stored in the hive during the overwintering period? Smart bees have their own tricks. They do not need to disband the sphere and crawl out to get food. Instead, they obtain food by passing it to each other. This can keep the temperature inside the sphere constant or less changing, which is beneficial to safe overwintering.

Learn About Bees Other Bees The superfamily Apis contains nearly 20% of all insects in the order Hymenoptera. The so-called Hymenoptera refers to insects that undergo frequent metamorphosis, have membrane wings, and have mouthparts capable of licking and grinding. The superfamily Bee superfamily includes 20,000 species, all of which feed on nectar and pollen. Most of them are solitary, but some are in the beginning stages of group life. However, no species lives in such tight colonies as the advanced bees of the Apidae family. The family Apidae is the only bee group that lives a social life and includes the genera Apis, Bombus, and Apis.

Apis

There are 4 species in this genus, all of which are social insects and live in groups. They are distributed around the world and increase in number through swarming. Bees in this genus dance to indicate nectar sources to their fellow bees.

The Indian giant bee, flower bee and Indian bee all live in Asia and all build suspended nests. Indian giant bees are very aggressive and their stings are terrifying.

Indian giant bees build their nests on large branches. Their nests are a row of cells, 0.75-1 meter long.

Flower bees, also known as "dwarf" bees, are only half the size of bees, but they are colorful. Their nests are only one row, but they are small and exquisite, 8 cm wide and 12 cm long.

The Indian bee is the bee most similar to the honey bee.

The four species of bees are distributed around the world, and they each have different habitat habits. Three of these species inhabit Asia, where they build suspended nests. Indian giant bees like to live in mountains. They can live at an altitude of 2,000 meters. This bee is mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. The habitat of the flower bee does not exceed 500 meters above sea level, and its distribution area is the same as that of the Indian giant bee. The Indian bee is distributed across a wide area of ??Asia, including China and parts of Siberia.

The fourth type is bees. This bee is most widely distributed in the West. They inhabit several European countries (Spain, England, Germany and France), where they have also become domesticated as house bees. They also live in Africa. Along with the colonization movement, bees also came to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. They nest in natural caves or artificial beehives and are also well adapted to alpine life.

Pollination

The only way for higher plants to reproduce is through pollination, that is, the pollen from the stamens is transferred to the pistils. Wind-pollinated plants are pollinated by the wind, but 80% of higher plants are insect-pollinated plants, which means they rely on insects for pollination. Domestic bees bear 65%-95% of insect vector tasks, but the most active pollinators are solitary bees such as leafcutter bees. It is believed that the economic benefits brought by bee pollination go beyond honey production

Natural enemies and parasitoids

Bees are delicacies for many natural enemies, but it is unlikely that any natural enemy will be responsible for swallowing a few Just one bee destroys the entire swarm of bees. The natural enemies of bees are insectivorous birds such as swallows, bee-eaters, and tits. If the winter is very cold, the green woodpecker will use its powerful beak to peck through the hive and eat the bees that have been closed for the winter. Among birds of prey, bee hawks are not afraid of stings because of their dense feathers. They destroy bee nests and peck at bee eggs and larvae. Some insects are also bee killers, stinging and killing bees. The mason wasp is one of them. They look like bumblebees. After grabbing the bee, they squeeze the abdomen to extract all the nectar, and then leave the remains of the bee as food for their own larvae. Dragonflies are fearsome carnivorous insects that also treat bees as a delicacy. Spiders build webs to catch bees, crab spiders set traps in flower crowns to catch bees, and orb-web spiders "guard their webs waiting for bees."

Other animals are interested in the fruits of bees' labor, such as hives and honey. Wasps covet the honey stored in the hive, a butterfly called the hive moth lays its eggs in the hive, and caterpillars build webs from the cells of vulnerable bees. A type of dipteran insect known as the "bee louse" parasitizes bees, especially the queen bee, and forces the victim to regurgitate food. The most terrifying ones are bee spores, caused by a single-celled organism, and aspergillosis, caused by fungi, which can paralyze the respiratory system of bees and cause blindness. Among mammals, bears are honey gourmets.