Bees are some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet. From their intricate social structures to their amazing ability to create honey, these tiny insects never cease to amaze us. The social structure includes three castes- queen bee, drone bee and worker bee. Bees are classified under the animal kingdom, phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, and order Hymenoptera, which also includes wasps, ants, and hornets. Bees are further classified into seven recognized families, including the Apidae family, which includes honey bees, bumblebees, and carpenter bees.
One of the most popular bees is the honey bee, which is responsible for pollinating a third of all the food we eat. They have a complex social structure, with a queen bee, worker bees, and drones.
Bees cannot survive in cold temperatures, and when I discovered two dead bees, one Apis dorsata and the other Apis mellifera, on my lawn, I became curious about their characteristics. I observed that both types of bees had noticeable differences in their physical appearances:
Apis dorsata is larger in size than Apis mellifera, with a wingspan of up to 6 cm compared to 4.5 cm in Apis mellifera.
Apis dorsata also has distinctive yellow and black bands on its abdomen, while Apis mellifera can have various patterns and colours depending on the subspecies.
Apis dorsata
Apis dorsata is a species of honeybee, commonly known as the giant honeybee or the Asian honeybee. It is one of the largest species of honeybee and is found in South and Southeast Asia, including India, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It builds large open-air nests that can be several feet in size and can house up to 60,000 bees.
The giant honeybee is known for its distinctive and defensive behaviour. When threatened, they will gather in large numbers and attack the intruder, stinging them repeatedly. However, Apis dorsata is also an important pollinator for many plants, including crops, and produces honey that is highly prized in some cultures. In some areas, people harvest honey by collecting honeycomb from wild bee hives, although this practice can be dangerous due to the bees' defensive behaviour.
It also exhibits a unique behaviour called "shimmering," where thousands of bees rapidly move their bodies in unison on the bee hive to create a visually stunning effect, which is not seen in Apis mellifera.
Apis mellifera
Apis mellifera is a species of honeybee, commonly known as the Western honeybee. It is one of the most well-known and widely studied species of bees, and is found throughout the world, including in Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Western honeybees are highly social insects, living in colonies of up to 50,000 individuals. They are important pollinators of many plants, including many crops, and produce honey that is widely used as a sweetener and in various other applications.
Apis mellifera builds smaller, enclosed bee hives inside hollow tree trunks, rock crevices, or man-made apiaries.
Unfortunately, Western honeybees have been experiencing significant decline in population in recent years due to factors such as habitat loss and pesticide use. This is a significant concern, as the decline of honeybees could have far-reaching impacts on agriculture and ecosystem health.
So next time you see a bee buzzing around, try finding out about their species (from a distance!!). They may be small, but they play a big role in our world. So let's give bees a big buzz of appreciation!
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