What are bees?
A: Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants.
They are known for their role in what?
A: Pollination and.
What is the best-known bee species?
A: The western honeybee, for producing honey.
There are How many known species of bees are there?
A: Over 16,000 in seven recognized biological families.
Some species, including honeybees, bumblebees, and
stingless bees – live how?
A: Socially in colonies.
Most species including mason bees, carpenter bees,
leafcutter bees, and sweat bees are what?
A: Solitary.
Bees are found on every continent except for what?
A: Antarctica.
They are found in every habitat on the planet that
contains what?
A: Insect-pollinated flowering plants.
What are the most common bees in the Northern
Hemisphere?
A: The Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for
wasps or flies.
Bees feed on what?
A: Nectar and pollen.
Nectar is by the bee as a what?
A: Primarily as an energy source.
Pollen is primarily for what?
A: Protein and other nutrients.
Most pollen is used as
food for what?
A: Their larvae.
How is bee pollination important?
A: It’s both ecologically and commercially important.
The decline in wild bees has increased the value of
pollination by what?
A: Commercially managed hives of honeybees.
Human beekeeping or apiculture has been practiced since
when?
A: From the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.
The immediate ancestors of bees were what?
A: Stinging wasps in the family Crabronidae, which were predators of other
insects.
The earliest animal-pollinated flowers
were shallow,
cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as what?
A: Beetles.
Bees are specialized as pollination agents, with
behavioral and physical modifications that do what?
A: That specifically enhance pollination and are the most efficient
pollinating insects.
In a process of coevolution, flowers developed floral
rewards such as what?
A: Nectar and longer tubes.
What did bees develop?
A: Longer tongues to extract the nectar.
Bees also developed structures known as scopal hairs
and pollen baskets to do what?
A: To collect and carry pollen.
Most species have scopal hairs on their hind legs or
where?
A: On the underside of their abdomens.
Bees have a pair of large compound eyes which cover
much of what?
A: The surface of the head.
Between and above these are three small simple eyes (ocelli)
which provide information on what?
A: Light intensity.
The antennae usually have how many segments?
A: 13 segments in males and 12 in females
They house large numbers of sense organs that can
detect what?
A: Touch, smell, and taste; and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can
detect air movement.
The mouthparts are adapted for both chewing and what?
A: Sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for
sucking up nectar.