Bees are flying
insectInsects are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million species that are already described. Insects represent more than half of all...
s closely related to
waspThe term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers,...
s and
antAnts are social insects of the family Formicidae , and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants...
s, and are known for their role in
pollinationPollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains, which contain the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
and for producing
honeyHoney is a sweet food made by some insects using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
and
beeswaxBeeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. Worker bees have eight wax-producing mirror glands on the inner sides of the sternites on abdominal segments 4 to 7...
. Bees are a
monophyleticIn common cladistic usage, a monophyletic group is a taxon which forms a clade, meaning that it consists of an ancestor and all its descendants. The term is synonymous with the uncommon term holophyly...
lineage within the superfamily
ApoideaThe superfamily Apoidea is a major group within the Hymenoptera, which includes two traditionally-recognized lineages, the "sphecoid" wasps, and the bees, who appear to be their descendants.- Nomenclature :...
, presently classified by the unranked taxon name
Anthophila. There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in nine recognized families, though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except
Antarctica| style="border-top:solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding:0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align:top;" | 14,000,000 km
2 280,000 km
2 13,720,000 km
2 |-! style="border-top: solid 1px #ccd2d9; padding: 0.4em 1em 0.4em 0; vertical-align: top;...
, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated
flowering plantThe flowering plants or angiosperms are the most diverse group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of seed plants...
s.
Introduction
Bees are adapted for feeding on
nectarNectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants. It is produced either by the flowers, in which it attracts pollinating animals or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists providing anti-herbivore protection. It is produced in glands called nectaries.Nectar...
and
pollenPollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for
proteinProteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form. The amino acids in a polymer chain are joined together by the peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues...
and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for
larvaA larva is a young form of animal with indirect development, going through or undergoing metamorphosis ....
e.
Bees have a long
proboscisIn general, a proboscis is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate..-Etymology:...
(a complex "tongue") that enables them to obtain the nectar from
flowerA flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds...
s. They have
antennaeAntennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods and crustaceans. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in many cell types of eukaryotes....
almost universally made up of 13 segments in males and 12 in females, as is typical for the superfamily. Bees all have two pairs of
wingsInsect wings are outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments , and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwings, respectively, though a few insects lack hindwings, even rudiments...
, the hind pair being the smaller of the two; in a very few species, one sex or caste has relatively short wings that make flight difficult or impossible, but none are wingless.
The smallest bee is
Trigona minima, a
stingless beeStingless bees, or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees, comprising the tribe Meliponini in the family Apidae, and closely related to the common honey bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees and bumblebees...
whose workers are about 2.1 mm (5/64") long. The largest bee in the world is
Megachile plutoMegachile pluto is a very large Indonesian resin bee . As females can be as large as 39 mm long with a wingspan of 63 mm , Megachile pluto is regarded as the largest bee in the world, and has been referred to as Wallace's Giant Bee...
, a leafcutter bee whose females can attain a length of 39 mm (1.5"). Members of the family
HalictidaeHalictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance...
, or sweat bees, are the most common type of bee in the
Northern HemisphereThe Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
, though they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies.
The best-known bee species is the
European honey beeThe European honey bee or western honey bee is a species of honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera comes from Greek melli- "honey" and ferre "to bear" — hence the scientific name means "honey-bearing bee"...
, which, as its name suggests, produces
honeyHoney is a sweet food made by some insects using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, as do a few other types of bee. Human management of this species is known as
beekeepingBeekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and beeswax, to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary.-Origins:There are more than...
or apiculture.
Bees are the favorite meal of
Merops apiaster, the
bee-eaterThe bee-eaters are a group of near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae. Most species are found in Africa but others occur in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers...
bird. Other common predators are
kingbirdThe genus Tyrannus is a group of large insect-eating birds in the Tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. The majority are named as Kingbirds.They prefer semi-open or open areas. These birds wait on an exposed perch and then catch insects in flight...
s,
mockingbirdMockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of insect and amphibian sounds as well as other bird songs, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species in three genera...
s,
bee wolvesBeewolves , also known as bee-hunters, burrowing wasps, or philanthuses, are solitary, predatory wasps, most of which prey on bees, hence their common name...
and
dragonfliesA dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...
.
Pollination
Bees play an important role in
pollinatingPollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains, which contain the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
flowering plantThe flowering plants or angiosperms are the most diverse group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of seed plants...
s, and are the major type of
pollinatorA pollinator is the biotic agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or syngamy of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain...
in
ecosystemAn ecosystem is a system of interdependent organisms which share the same habitat, in an area functioning together with all of the physical factors of the environment. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs...
s that contain flowering plants. Bees either focus on gathering nectar or on gathering pollen depending on demand, especially in social species. Bees gathering nectar may accomplish pollination, but bees that are deliberately gathering pollen are more efficient pollinators. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated
European honey beeThe European honey bee or western honey bee is a species of honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera comes from Greek melli- "honey" and ferre "to bear" — hence the scientific name means "honey-bearing bee"...
.
Contract pollinationPollination Management is the label for horticultural practices that accomplish or enhance pollination of a crop, to improve yield or quality, by understanding of the particular crop's pollination needs, and by knowledgeable management of pollenizers, pollinators, and pollination...
has overtaken the role of honey production for
beekeeperA beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...
s in many countries.
MonocultureMonoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. The term is also applied in several fields. It is usually developed by extensive growing farmers.-Land use:...
and the massive
declineThe term pollinator decline refers to the reduction in abundance of pollinators in many ecosystems worldwide during the end of the twentieth century....
of many bee species (both wild and domesticated) have increasingly caused honey bee keepers to become
migratorySeasonal human migration is very common in agricultural cycles. It includes migrations such as moving sheep or cattle to higher elevations during summer to escape heat and find more forage...
so that bees can be concentrated in seasonally-varying high-demand areas of pollination.
Most bees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge, which aids in the adherence of pollen. Female bees periodically stop foraging and groom themselves to pack the pollen into the
scopaThe term scopa is used to refer to any of a number of different modifications on the body of a non-parasitic bee that form a pollen-carrying apparatus. In most bees, the scopa is simply a particularly dense mass of elongated, often branched, hairs on the hind leg...
, which is on the legs in most bees, and on the ventral
abdomenIn vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
on others, and modified into specialized
pollen basketThe pollen basket or corbicula is part of the tibia on the hind legs of the four related lineages of apid bees that used to comprise the family Apidae: the honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees. A honey bee moistens the forelegs with a protruding tongue and brushes the pollen...
s on the legs of honey bees and their relatives. Many bees are opportunistic foragers, and will gather pollen from a variety of plants, while others are oligolectic, gathering pollen from only one or a few types of plant. A small number of plants produce nutritious floral oils rather than pollen, which are gathered and used by oligolectic bees. One small subgroup of
stingless beeStingless bees, or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees, comprising the tribe Meliponini in the family Apidae, and closely related to the common honey bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees and bumblebees...
s, called "
vulture beeVulture bees are a small group of three closely-related American stingless bee species in the genus Trigona which feed on rotting meat rather than pollen or nectar. These are the only known bees which do not rely on plant products for food...
s," is specialized to feed on
carrionCarrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters, or scavengers, include Hyenas, Vultures, Canadian Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, Black Bears, Komodo Dragons, Bald Eagles, Raccoons,...
, and these are the only bees that do not use plant products as food. Pollen and nectar are usually combined together to form a "provision mass", which is often soupy, but can be firm. It is formed into various shapes (typically
spheroidA spheroid is a quadric surface obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters....
), and stored in a small chamber (a "cell"), with the egg deposited on the mass. The cell is typically sealed after the egg is laid, and the adult and larva never interact directly (a system called "
mass provisioningMass provisioning is a term used in entomology to refer to a form of parental behavior in which an adult stocks all of the food for each offspring in a small chamber prior to laying the egg...
").
In
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
scientists discovered that three genera of native bees have evolved to open flower buds of the native mistletoe
Peraxilla tetrapetala. The buds cannot open themselves but are visited by birds such as the
tuiThe Tui is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand. It is one of the largest members of the diverse honeyeater family....
and
bellbirdThe New Zealand Bellbird also known by its native name Korimako is a passerine bird endemic to New Zealand. It has greenish coloration and is the only living member of the genus Anthornis. The bellbird forms a significant component of the famed New Zealand dawn chorus of bird song that was much...
which twist the top of the ripe bud. That action releases a mechanism which causes the petals to suddenly spring open, giving access to the nectar and pollen. However, when observing the native bees in the
CanterburyThe New Zealand region of Canterbury is mainly composed of the Canterbury Plains and the surrounding mountains. Its main city, Christchurch, hosts the main office of the Christchurch City Council, the Canterbury Regional Council and the University of Canterbury.- Geography :Canterbury is New...
province in the
South IslandThe South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
, the scientists were astonished to see the bees biting the top off the buds, then pushing with their legs, occasionally popping open the buds to allow the bees to harvest the nectar and pollen, and therefore aid in the pollination of the mistletoe which is in decline in New Zealand. Nowhere else in the world have bees demonstrated ability to open explosive bird-adapted flowers.
Visiting flowers can be a dangerous occupation. Many assassin bugs and
crab spiderCrab spiders or Thomisidae family of the Araneae order. They are called crab spiders because they resemble crabs, with two front pairs of legs angled outward and bodies that are flattened and often angular. Also, like crabs, Thomisidae can move sideways or backward.Crab spiders do not build webs to...
s hide in flowers to capture unwary bees. Other bees are lost to birds in flight.
InsecticideAn insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...
s used on blooming plants kill many bees, both by direct poisoning and by contamination of their food supply. A honey bee
queenThe term queen bee is typically used to refer to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; she is usually the mother of all the bees in the hive. The queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature...
may lay 2000 eggs per day during spring buildup, but she also must lay 1000 to 1500 eggs per day during the foraging season, mostly to replace daily casualties, most of which are workers dying of old age. Among solitary and primitively social bees, however, lifetime reproduction is among the lowest of all insects, as it is common for females of such species to produce fewer than 25 offspring.
The population value of bees depends partly on the individual efficiency of the bees, but also on the population itself. Thus while
bumblebeeA bumblebee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere....
s have been found to be about ten times more efficient pollinators on
cucurbitsCucurbitaceae is a plant family commonly known as melons, gourds or cucurbits and includes crops like cucumbers, squashes , luffas, melons and watermelons...
, the total efficiency of a colony of honey bees is much greater due to greater numbers. Likewise during early spring orchard blossoms, bumblebee populations are limited to only a few queens, and thus are not significant pollinators of early fruit.
Depopulation
In 2007, managed populations of
European honey beeThe European honey bee or western honey bee is a species of honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera comes from Greek melli- "honey" and ferre "to bear" — hence the scientific name means "honey-bearing bee"...
s experienced substantial declines. This has prompted investigations into the phenomenon amidst great concern over the nature and extent of the losses. One aspect of the problem is believed to be "
Colony Collapse DisorderColony collapse disorder or sometimes honey bee depopulation syndrome is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear...
" but many of the losses outside the US are attributed to other causes. Pesticides used to treat seeds, such as
ClothianidinClothianidin is an insecticide developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer AG. It is a Neonicotinoid.-Criticism:Clothianidin is being studied regarding mass dieoffs of honeybees in some parts of Europe...
and
ImidaclopridImidacloprid is a neonicotinoid, which is a class of neuro-active insecticides modeled after nicotine. A patented chemical, Imidacloprid is manufactured by Bayer Cropscience and sold under trade names Kohinor, Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Merit, Confidor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner...
, may also negatively impact honey bee populations. Other species of bees such as
mason beeMason bee is a common name for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae. They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood boring insects....
s are increasingly cultured and used to meet the agricultural pollination need.
Native pollinators include bumblebees and solitary bees, which often survive in refuges in wild areas away from agricultural spraying, but may still be poisoned in massive spray programs for
mosquitoMosquito is a common insect in the family Culicidae...
es,
gypsy mothThe gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is a moth in the family Lymantriidae of Eurasian origin. Originally ranging from Europe to Asia, it was introduced to North America in the late 1860s and has been expanding its range ever since.-Eggs:...
s, or other insect
pestsA pest is an organism, usually an insect, which has characteristics that are regarded by humans as injurious or unwanted. This is often because it causes damage to agriculture through feeding on crops or parasitising livestock, such as codling moth on apples, or boll weevil on cotton...
. Although pesticide use remains a concern, the major problem for wild pollinator populations is the loss of the flower-rich habitat on which they depend for food. Throughout the northern hemisphere, the last 70 or so years has seen an intensification of agricultural systems which has decreased the abundance and diversity of
wild flowersA wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet "wildflower" meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term "wildflower" has been made vague by commercial seedsmen who are interested in selling more flowers or seeds more...
.
Evolution
Bees, like ants, are a specialized form of
waspThe term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers,...
. The ancestors of bees were wasps in the family
CrabronidaeCrabronidae is a large family of wasps, that includes nearly all of the species formerly comprising the now-defunct superfamily Sphecoidea. It collectively includes well over 200 genera, containing well over 9000 species. Crabronids were originally a part of Sphecidae, but the latter name is now...
, and therefore predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects that were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
ary scenario has also occurred within the
vespoidVespoidea is a superfamily of order Hymenoptera of class Insecta, although older taxonomic schemes may vary in this categorization, particularly in their recognition of a now-obsolete superfamily Scolioidea...
wasps, where the group known as "
pollen waspPollen wasps are unusual wasps that are typically treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but have in the past sometimes been recognized as a separate family, "Masaridae", which also included the subfamily Euparagiinae. It is a small subfamily, unique among wasps in feeding their larvae exclusively...
s" also evolved from predatory ancestors. Up until recently the oldest non-compression bee fossil had been
Cretotrigona prisca in New Jersey amber and of
Cretaceous ageThe Cretaceous , Latin language for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
, a meliponine. A recently reported bee fossil, of the genus
Melittosphex, is considered
"an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sisterCladistics is a form of biological systematics which classifies living organisms on the basis of shared ancestry...
to the modern bees", and dates from the
early CretaceousThe Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...
(~100 mya). Derived features of its morphology ("apomorphies") place it clearly within the bees, but it retains two unmodified ancestral traits ("plesiomorphies") of the legs (two mid-tibial spurs, and a slender hind basitarsus), indicative of its transitional status.
The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were pollinated by insects such as
beetleBeetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are classified in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal kingdom, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms...
s, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before bees first appeared. The novelty is that bees are
specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are generally more efficient at the task than any other pollinating insect such as beetles,
fliesTrue flies are insects of the order Diptera , possessing a single pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax....
,
butterfliesA butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form. Most species are day-flying so...
and pollen wasps. The appearance of such floral specialists is believed to have driven the
adaptive radiationAn adaptive radiation is a rapid evolutionary radiation characterized by an increase in the morphological and ecological diversity of a single, rapidly diversifying lineage. Phenotypes adapt in response to the environment, with new and useful traits arising...
of the angiosperms, and, in turn, the bees themselves.
Among living bee groups, the
DasypodaidaeThe family Dasypodaidae is a small bee family, with some 70-80 species in 7 genera, found in Africa and the northern temperate zone, primarily in xeric habitats...
are now considered to be the most "primitive", and
sister taxonCladistics is a form of biological systematics which classifies living organisms on the basis of shared ancestry...
to the remainder of the bees, contrary to earlier hypotheses that the "short-tongued" bee family
ColletidaeColletidae is a family of bees, and are often referred to collectively as plasterer bees, due to the method of smoothing the walls of their nest cells with secretions applied with their mouthparts; these secretions dry into a cellophane-like lining. There are 5 subfamilies, 54 genera, and over 2000...
was the basal group of bees; the short, wasp-like
mouthpartsThe mouthparts of arthropods have evolved into a number of forms, each adapted to a different style or mode of feeding. Most mouthparts represent modified, paired appendages, which in ancestral forms would have appeared more like legs than mouthparts. In general, arthropods have mouthparts for...
of colletids are the result of
convergent evolutionConvergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action. Although their last common ancestor did not have wings, birds and bats do, and are capable of powered flight. The wings are similar in...
, rather than indicative of a plesiomorphic condition.
Eusocial and semisocial bees
Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. The most advanced of these are eusocial colonies found among the honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees. Sociality, of several different types, is believed to have evolved separately many times within the bees.
In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a
division of laborDivision of labour or economic specialisation is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase the productivity of labour...
within the group, then they are considered semisocial.
If, in addition to a division of labor, the group consists of a mother and her daughters, then the group is called eusocial. The mother is considered the "queen" and the daughters are "workers". These castes may be purely behavioral alternatives, in which case the system is considered "primitively eusocial" (similar to many
paper waspPaper wasps are -long wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water-resistant nests made of gray or brown papery material...
s), and if the castes are morphologically discrete, then the system is "highly eusocial".
There are many more species of primitively eusocial bees than highly eusocial bees, but they have rarely been studied. The biology of most such species is almost completely unknown. The vast majority are in the family
HalictidaeHalictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance...
, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. The only physical difference between queens and workers is average size, if they differ at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females (future queens, or "gynes") hibernate (called
diapauseDiapause is a physiological state of dormancy with very specific triggering and releasing conditions. It is used as a means to survive predictable, unfavourable environmental conditions, such as temperature extremes, drought or reduced food availability...
). A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds. The orchid bees include a number of primitively eusocial species with similar biology. Certain species of allodapine bees (relatives of
carpenter beeCarpenter bees are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera...
s) also have primitively eusocial colonies, with unusual levels of interaction between the adult bees and the developing brood. This is "
progressive provisioningProgressive provisioning is a term used in entomology to refer to a form of parental behavior in which an adult feeds its larvae directly after they have hatched, feeding each larva repeatedly until it has completed development...
"; a larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops. This system is also seen in honey bees and some bumblebees.
Highly eusocial bees live in colonies. Each colony has a single queen, many
workersA Worker bee is any female eusocial bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen, as well...
and, at certain stages in the colony cycle,
dronesDrones are male honey bees. Drones develop from eggs that have not been fertilized.-Drone Genetics:Drones carry only one type of allele because they are haploid ; thus, they are also called hemizygous...
. When humans provide the nest, it is called a
hiveA beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the genus live and raise their young. Natural beehives are naturally-occurring structures occupied by honey bee colonies, while domesticated honey bees live in man-made beehives, often in an apiary. These man-made structures are...
. A honey bee hive can contain up to 40,000 bees at their annual peak, which occurs in the spring, but usually have fewer.
Bumblebees
BumblebeeA bumblebee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere....
s (
Bombus terrestris,
B. pratorum, et al.) are eusocial in a manner quite similar to the eusocial Vespidae such as
hornetHornets are the largest eusocial wasps, some species can reach up to in length. The true hornets make up the genus Vespa, and are distinguished from other vespines by the width of the vertex , which is proportionally larger in Vespa; and by the anteriorly rounded gasters .- Life cycle :In...
s. The queen initiates a nest on her own (unlike queens of honey bees and stingless bees which start nests via
swarmSwarm describes a behaviour of an aggregate of animals of similar size and body orientation, often moving en mass in the same direction. "Swarming" is a general term that can be applied to any animal that swarms. The term can be applied to insects, birds, fish, various microorganisms such as...
s in the company of a large worker force). Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population, which occurs in mid to late summer. Nest architecture is simple, limited by the size of the nest cavity (pre-existing), and colonies are rarely perennial. Bumblebee queens sometimes seek winter safety in honey bee hives, where they are sometimes found dead in the spring by
beekeeperA beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...
s, presumably stung to death by the honey bees. It is unknown whether any survive winter in such an environment.
Bumblebees are one of the more important wild pollinators, but have declined significantly in recent decades. In the UK, 2 species have become nationally extinct during the last 75 years while others have been placed on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan as priority species in recognition of the need for conservation action. In 2006 a new charity, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, was established in order to coordinate efforts to conserve remaining populations through conservation and education.
Stingless bees
Stingless beeStingless bees, or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees, comprising the tribe Meliponini in the family Apidae, and closely related to the common honey bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees and bumblebees...
s are very diverse in behavior, but all are highly eusocial. They practice mass provisioning, complex nest architecture, and perennial colonies.
Honey bees
The true honey bees (genus
Apis) have arguably the most complex
social behaviorIn biology, psychology and sociology social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social...
among the bees. The
European (or Western) honey beeThe European honey bee or western honey bee is a species of honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera comes from Greek melli- "honey" and ferre "to bear" — hence the scientific name means "honey-bearing bee"...
,
Apis mellifera, is the best known bee species and one of the best known of all insects.
Africanized honey bee
Africanized bees, also called killer bees, are a hybrid strain of
Apis mellifera derived from experiments to cross European and African honey bees by
Warwick Estevam KerrWarwick Estevam Kerr is a Brazilian agricultural engineer, geneticist, entomologist, professor and scientific leader, notable for his discoveries in the genetics and sex determination of bees...
. Several queen bees escaped his laboratory in
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
and have spread throughout the Americas. Africanized honey bees are more defensive than European honey bees.
Solitary and communal bees
Most other bees, including familiar species of bee such as the
Eastern carpenter beeThe common Eastern carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica, is the carpenter bee most often encountered in the eastern United States. It is often mistaken for a large bumblebee species, as they are similar in size and coloring...
(
Xylocopa virginica),
alfalfa leafcutter beeMegachile rotundata, the alfalfa leafcutter bee, is a European bee that has been introduced to other regions. As a solitary bee species, it does not build colonies or store honey, but is a very efficient pollinator of alfalfa, carrots and some other vegetables.The importation of the species to...
(
Megachile rotundata),
orchard mason beeThe orchard mason bee, Osmia lignaria, is a megachilid bee that makes nests in reeds and natural holes, creating individual cells for their brood that are separated by mud dividers. They are unlike carpenter bees in that they cannot drill holes in wood. O...
(
Osmia lignaria) and the
hornfaced beeThe hornfaced bee has been used commercially for several decades in Japan to pollinate apples, as it is now in the US. A single hornfaced bee can visit 15 flowers in a minute. This solitary bee nests in reeds, tubes and holes in wood....
(
Osmia cornifrons) are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There are no
worker bees for these species. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor
beeswaxBeeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. Worker bees have eight wax-producing mirror glands on the inner sides of the sternites on abdominal segments 4 to 7...
. They are immune from acarine and
VarroaVarroa is a genus of parasitic mites associated with honey bees. The genus was named for Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar who was also a beekeeper.Selected species...
miteMites, along with ticks, belong to the subclass Acarina and the class Arachnida. Mites are among the most diverse and successful of all the invertebrate groups. They have exploited an incredible array of habitats, and because of their small size most go totally unnoticed...
s (see diseases of the honey bee), but have their own unique parasites, pests and
diseaseA disease or medical condition isan abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs...
s.
Solitary bees are important pollinators, and pollen is gathered for provisioning the nest with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have very advanced types of pollen carrying structures on their bodies. A very few species of solitary bees are being increasingly cultured for commercial pollination.
Solitary bees are often oligoleges, in that they only gather pollen from one or a few species/genera of plants (unlike honey bees and bumblebees which are generalists). No known bees are nectar specialists; many oligolectic bees will visit multiple plants for nectar, but there are no bees which visit only one plant for nectar while also gathering pollen from many different sources. Specialist pollinators also include bee species that gather floral oils instead of pollen, and male orchid bees, which gather aromatic compounds from orchids (one of the only cases where male bees are effective pollinators). In a very few cases only one species of bee can effectively pollinate a
plantPlants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The scientific study of plants, known as botany, has identified about 350,000 extant species of plants, defined as seed plants,...
species, and some plants are
endangeredAn endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. Also it could mean that due to deforestation there may be a lack of food and/or water...
at least in part because their pollinator is dying off. There is, however, a pronounced tendency for oligolectic bees to be associated with common, widespread plants which are visited by multiple pollinators (e.g., there are some 40 oligoleges associated with creosote bush in the US desert southwest, and a similar pattern is seen in
sunflowerSunflowers are annual plants native to the Americas, that possess a large inflorescence .-Description :...
s, asters,
mesquiteMesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in Northern Mexico and the United States from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas up to southwestern Kansas and from southeastern California and southwestern Utah to the southern limits of the Sonoran desert...
, etc.)
Solitary bees create nests in hollow
reedsPhragmites australis, the common reed, is a large perennial grass found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. It is sometimes regarded as the sole species of the genus Phragmites, though some botanists divide Phragmites australis into three or four species and in...
or twigs, holes in
woodWood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees . In a living tree it transfers water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves...
, or, most commonly, in tunnels in the ground. The female typically creates a compartment (a "cell") with an egg and some provisions for the resulting larva, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males. The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid, and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males typically emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Providing nest boxes for solitary bees is increasingly popular for gardeners. Solitary bees are either stingless or very unlikely to sting (only in self defense, if ever).
While solitary females each make individual nests, some species are gregarious, preferring to make nests near others of the same species, giving the appearance to the casual observer that they are social. Large groups of solitary bee nests are called
aggregations, to distinguish them from
coloniesIn biology, a colony refers to several individual organisms of the same species living closely together, usually for mutual benefit, such as stronger defences or the ability to attack bigger prey. Some insects live only in colonies...
.
In some species, multiple females share a common nest, but each makes and provisions her own cells independently. This type of group is called "communal" and is not uncommon. The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when there are multiple females using that same entrance on a regular basis.
Cleptoparasitic bees
Cleptoparasitic bees, commonly called "
cuckoo beeThe term cuckoo bee is used for a variety of different bee lineages which have evolved the kleptoparasitic habit of laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, reminiscent of the behavior of cuckoo birds. The name is technically best applied to the apid subfamily Nomadinae...
s" because their behavior is similar to
cuckooThe cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...
birds, occur in several bee families, though the name is technically best applied to the
apidThe Apidae are a large family of bees, comprising the common honey bees, stingless bees , carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees, bumblebees, and various other less well-known groups...
subfamily
NomadinaeThe subfamily Nomadinae is the largest and most diverse group of cleptoparasitic "cuckoo bees" with 31 genera in 10 tribes; they occur worldwide, and utilize many different types of bees as hosts. As parasites, they lack a pollen-carrying scopa, and are often extraordinarily wasp-like in appearance...
. Females of these bees lack pollen collecting structures (the
scopaThe term scopa is used to refer to any of a number of different modifications on the body of a non-parasitic bee that form a pollen-carrying apparatus. In most bees, the scopa is simply a particularly dense mass of elongated, often branched, hairs on the hind leg...
) and do not construct their own nests. They typically enter the nests of pollen collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and if the female cleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host larva. In a few cases where the hosts are social species, the cleptoparasite remains in the host nest and lays many eggs, sometimes even killing the host queen and replacing her.
Many cleptoparasitic bees are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size, (i.e., the
Bombus subgenus
Psithyrus, which are parasitic bumblebees that infiltrate nests of species in other subgenera of
Bombus). This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle known as "
Emery's RuleIn 1909, the entomologist Carlo Emery noted that social parasites among insects tend to be parasites of species or genera to which they are closely related. Over the years, this pattern has been recognized in many additional cases, and generalized to what is now known as Emery's Rule...
". Others parasitize bees in different families, like
Townsendiella, a
nomadineThe subfamily Nomadinae is the largest and most diverse group of cleptoparasitic "cuckoo bees" with 31 genera in 10 tribes; they occur worldwide, and utilize many different types of bees as hosts. As parasites, they lack a pollen-carrying scopa, and are often extraordinarily wasp-like in appearance...
apidThe Apidae are a large family of bees, comprising the common honey bees, stingless bees , carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees, bumblebees, and various other less well-known groups...
, one species of which is a cleptoparasite of the
dasypodaidThe family Dasypodaidae is a small bee family, with some 70-80 species in 7 genera, found in Africa and the northern temperate zone, primarily in xeric habitats...
genus
Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attack
halictidHalictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance...
bees.
Nocturnal bees
Four bee families (
AndrenidaeThe family Andrenidae is a large cosmopolitan non-parasitic bee family, with most of the diversity in temperate and/or arid areas , including some truly enormous genera...
,
ColletidaeColletidae is a family of bees, and are often referred to collectively as plasterer bees, due to the method of smoothing the walls of their nest cells with secretions applied with their mouthparts; these secretions dry into a cellophane-like lining. There are 5 subfamilies, 54 genera, and over 2000...
,
HalictidaeHalictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance...
, and
ApidaeThe Apidae are a large family of bees, comprising the common honey bees, stingless bees , carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees, bumblebees, and various other less well-known groups...
) contain some species that are
crepuscularCrepuscular is a term used to describe some animals that are primarily active during twilight, that is at dawn and at dusk. The word is derived from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight." Crepuscular is thus in contrast with diurnal and nocturnal behavior. Crepuscular animals may also be...
(these may be either the
vespertineVespertine is a term used in the life sciences to indicate something of, relating to, or occurring in the evening. In botany, a vespertine flower is one which opens or blooms in the evening. In zoology, the term is used for a creature that becomes active in the evening, such as bats and owls...
or matinal type). These bees have greatly enlarged
ocelli- Overview :A 'simple eye' refers to a type of eye design or optical arrangement that contains a single lens. ‘Simple’ in this case does not refer to the number of cells present in the eye or the visual acuity of the eye. Indeed, the optical properties and anatomy of simple eyes is often incredibly...
, which are extremely sensitive to light and dark, though incapable of forming images. Many are pollinators of flowers that themselves are
crepuscularCrepuscular is a term used to describe some animals that are primarily active during twilight, that is at dawn and at dusk. The word is derived from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight." Crepuscular is thus in contrast with diurnal and nocturnal behavior. Crepuscular animals may also be...
, such as
evening primrosesOenothera is a genus of about 125 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants, native to North and South America. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening-primrose, suncups, and sundrops.The species vary in size from small alpine plants...
, and some live in desert habitats where daytime temperatures are extremely high.
Bee flight
In his 1934 French book
Le vol des insectes, M. Magnan wrote that he and a Mr. Saint-Lague had applied the equations of air resistance to
bumblebeeA bumblebee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere....
s and found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality". This has led to a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory", but in fact it merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, and that their flight is explained by other mechanics, such as those used by helicopters.
In 1996 Charlie Ellington at Cambridge University showed that vortices created by many insects’ wings and non-linear effects were a vital source of lift;
vorticesA vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
and non-linear phenomena are notoriously difficult areas of hydrodynamics, which has made for slow progress in theoretical understanding of
insect flightInsects are the only group of invertebrates known to have evolved flight. Insects possess some remarkable flight characteristics and abilities, still far superior to attempts by humans to replicate their capabilities. Even our understanding of the aerodynamics of flexible, flapping wings and how...
.
In 2005 Michael Dickinson and his Caltech colleagues studied honey bee flight with the assistance of high-speed
cinematographyCinematography , is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
and a giant robotic mock-up of a bee wing. Their analysis revealed sufficient lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small
arcIn geometry, an arc is a closed segment of a differentiable curve in the two-dimensional plane; for example, a circular arc is a segment of the circumference of a circle...
, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.
In 2008 Barbara Shipman discovered a mathematical connection between the dance of bees and the
Flag manifoldIn mathematics, a generalized flag variety is a homogeneous space whose points are flags in a finite-dimensional vector space V over a field F. When F is the real or complex numbers, a generalized flag variety is a smooth or complex manifold, called a real or complex flag manifold...
.
Bees and humans
Bees figure prominently in mythology (See
Bee (mythology)The bee, found in Ancient Near East and Aegean cultures, was believed to be the sacred insect that bridged the natural world to the underworld...
) and have been used by political theorists as a model for human
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
. Journalist Bee Wilson states that the image of a community of honey bees "occurs from ancient to modern times, in
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
and
PlatoPlato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
; in
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
and
SenecaLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
; in Erasmus and Shakespeare;
TolstoyTolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from one Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
, as well as by social theorists Bernard Mandeville and
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
."
Despite the honey bee's painful sting and the stereotype of insects as pests, bees are generally held in high regard. This is most likely due to their usefulness as pollinators and as producers of honey, their social nature, and their reputation for diligence. Bees are one of the few insects regularly used on
advertisementsAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
, being used to illustrate honey and foods made with honey (such as
Honey Nut CheeriosHoney Nut Cheerios is a variation of Cheerios breakfast cereal, introduced in 1979 by General Mills. As the first variation from Cheerios, it is sweeter than the original, with a honey and almond flavor...
).
In
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
yellowjacketYellow jacket or yellow-jacket is the common name in North America for predatory wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries...
s and
hornetHornets are the largest eusocial wasps, some species can reach up to in length. The true hornets make up the genus Vespa, and are distinguished from other vespines by the width of the vertex , which is proportionally larger in Vespa; and by the anteriorly rounded gasters .- Life cycle :In...
s, especially when encountered as flying pests, are often misidentified as bees, despite numerous differences between them - see
Characteristics of common wasps and beesWhile easily confused at a distance or without close observation, there are many different characteristics of bees and wasps which can be used to identify them.-External links:* * *...
.
Although a
bee stingA bee sting strictly means a sting from a bee . In the vernacular it can mean a sting of a bee, wasp, hornet, or yellowjacket. Some people may even call the bite of a horse-fly a bee sting...
can be deadly to those with allergies, virtually all bee species are non-aggressive if undisturbed and many cannot sting at all. Humans are often a greater danger to bees, as bees can be affected or even harmed by encounters with toxic chemicals in the environment - see
Bees and toxic chemicalsBees can suffer serious effects from toxic chemicals in their environment. This includes various synthetic chemicals, such as insecticides and fertilizers, as well as a variety of naturally-occurring chemicals from plants, such as ethanol resulting from the fermentation of organic material...
.
In
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
bee larvae are eaten as accompanion to
riceRice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...
, after mixed with shredded
coconutThe Coconut Palm is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long, pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut refers to the seed of the...
"meat", wrapped in
bananaBanana is the common name for a herbaceous plants of the genus Musa, and the commonly eaten fruit it produces. They are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. Today, they are cultivated throughout the tropics.Banana...
leaves, and steamed.
See also
- Apiology
Apiology is the scientific study of honey bees, a subdiscipline of melittology, which is itself a branch of entomology...
- Bee and wasp stings
- Honey bee life cycle
- International Union for the Study of Social Insects
International Union for the Study of Social Insects is an association of entomologists from different countries engaged in research of social insects...
- Pesticide toxicity to bees
Pesticides vary in their effect on bees. Contact insecticides, those which kill by touching the organism, affect the worker bee that is directly sprayed...
- Schmidt Sting Pain Index
The Schmidt Sting Pain Index or the Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different Hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center...
- Starr sting pain scale
Starr sting pain scale or "A Pain Scale for Bee, Wasp, and Ant Stings" was created by the entomologist Christopher Starr as a scale to compare the overall pain of Hymenopteran stings on a four-point scale . 1 is the lowest pain rating; 4 is the highest....
External links