Bee

Bees are winged <a href="/facts/Insect/IgDNvnUL">insects</a> closely related to <a href="/facts/Wasp/pbJjDyjr">wasps</a> and <a href="/facts/Ant/CyxckAAE">ants</a>, known for their roles in <a href="/facts/Pollination/u383g7XJ">pollination</a> and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the <a href="/facts/Western_honey_bee/QGKeLH2g">western honey bee</a>, for producing <a href="/facts/Honey/jnRSlNEF">honey</a>. Bees are a <a href="/facts/Monophyly/pD8Yrrn6">monophyletic</a> lineage within the superfamily <a href="/facts/Apoidea/QpbgcwKw">Apoidea</a>. They are currently considered a <a href="/facts/Clade/XefyYmWn">clade</a>, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized <a href="/facts/Family_(biology)/qTrn6E8E">biological families</a>. Some species – including <a href="/facts/Honey_bee/GetXQWM0">honey bees</a>, <a href="/facts/Bumblebee/ItHf967s">bumblebees</a>, and <a href="/facts/Stingless_bee/y4hlRgcE">stingless bees</a> – live <a href="/facts/Eusociality/RrNadVME">socially</a> in colonies while most species (>90%) – including <a href="/facts/Mason_bee/RHV3n6r6">mason bees</a>, <a href="/facts/Carpenter_bee/VaGBcUkl">carpenter bees</a>, <a href="/facts/Megachile/uUAhIlfB">leafcutter bees</a>, and <a href="/facts/Halictidae/STlVBnMU">sweat bees</a> – are solitary.
Bees are found on every continent except <a href="/facts/Antarctica/bEM5Lem5">Antarctica</a>, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated <a href="/facts/Flowering_plant/E5eGYIvY">flowering plants</a>. The most common bees in the <a href="/facts/Northern_Hemisphere/EFwyqL25">Northern Hemisphere</a> are the <a href="/facts/Halictidae/STlVBnMU">Halictidae</a>, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species, whose workers are less than 2 millimeters (0.08 in) long, to the leafcutter bee <a href="/facts/Megachile_pluto/7AMY3DLI">Megachile pluto</a>, the largest species of bee, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimeters (1.54 in).
Bees feed on <a href="/facts/Nectar/Y784ExfM">nectar</a> and <a href="/facts/Pollen/eqRP052I">pollen</a>, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for <a href="/facts/Protein/Jxmagu3E">protein</a> and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for their <a href="/facts/Larva/GKo2FIew">larvae</a>. Vertebrate predators of bees include <a href="/facts/Primates/Hl8RNE2X">primates</a> and birds such as <a href="/facts/Bee-eater/utm1N80D">bee-eaters</a>; insect predators include <a href="/facts/Beewolf/j84SIPzK">beewolves</a> and <a href="/facts/Dragonfly/rbkcYK0n">dragonflies</a>.
Bee <a href="/facts/Pollination_management/tEN0gnX4">pollination</a> is important both ecologically and <a href="/facts/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees/26TtawdA">commercially</a>, and the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain from 1980 to 2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980.
Human <a href="/facts/Beekeeping/7mewsgqp">beekeeping</a> or apiculture (<a href="/facts/Meliponiculture/y4hlRgcE">meliponiculture</a> for stingless bees) has been practiced for millennia, since at least the times of <a href="/facts/Ancient_Egypt/BDsEGK4g">Ancient Egypt</a> and <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greece/PTVBrWXq">Ancient Greece</a>. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, through all phases of art and literature from ancient times to the present day, although primarily focused in the <a href="/facts/Northern_Hemisphere/EFwyqL25">Northern Hemisphere</a> where beekeeping is far more common. In <a href="/facts/Mesoamerica/cFjUFklr">Mesoamerica</a>, the <a href="/facts/Mayans/CIcjD7uS">Mayans</a> have practiced large-scale intensive meliponiculture since pre-Columbian times.

Bee open-in-new

Bee