There are about 20,000 species of bee, found on every continent except Antarctica. One third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination and most of this done by bees. The smallest bee is the dwarf bee at about 2mm, and the largest can be about 40mm. The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the ‘sweat bees’, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies.
Bees are closely related to wasps and ants. There are about 20,000 species of bees, and they are found on every continent except Antarctica. One third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of this accomplished by bees.Bees feed on nectar which gives the adults the energy to buzz around, and pollen for the developing larvae. They convert the nectar to honey for storage, and humans often ‘borrow’ it!
Bees started out as predators of other insects, but after millions of years of feeding pollen-covered prey insects to their young these ancient wasps gradually ‘developed a taste’ for the pollen alone and evolved into bees. The oldest bee fossil is 100 million years old, and it looks as if bees evolved alongside the flowering plants.
Many bees may be solitary, but the best known live in communities. The most advanced of these are truly ‘social’ colonies found among the honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees. My first four articles on the subject deal with these social bees in more detail. (Later I will look at some of the others).
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