| Kinds of Bees Scientists divide the 10,000 kinds of bees into
two main groups. Social bees live in colonies,
while solitary bees live alone. Most kinds of
bees are solitary.
Social Bees live in
colonies that have as few as 10 or as many as 80,000
members. Honeybees seem to have the most highly developed
societies, with stingless bees and bumblebees coming next
in social development.
|
Stingless Bees
have small stings, but do not use them as
weapons. They prefer to bite with their jaws.
Stingless bees live only in tropical and
near-tropical areas. They build their nests in
trees, on walls, in crude hives, in the ground,
or in open areas. They build their honeycombs in
horizontal layers. Colonies may have from 50 to
several thousand bees. |
Solitary Bees
live alone, but thousands of individual bees may gather
in a small area and build their nests close together.
There are no workers among solitary bees. Instead, each
female does her own work, builds her own nest, and
provides the food upon which her larvae will feed.
|
Carpenter Bees
build their nests in dead twigs or branches. The
female digs a tunnel, puts pollen and nectar at
the bottom, and lays an egg. She then spreads
tiny wood chips cemented together with saliva
across the top of the cell. This ceiling acts as
a floor for the cells above. The tunnel has a
series of cells, each containing food and one
egg. |
|
Leaf Cutter Bees
cut out pieces of leaves and pack them into small
nests in tunnels. They lay eggs on food which
they put into the nests. They build their tunnels
in the ground, in branches, or in pieces of soft
wood. A tunnel may have six or more cells, one
above the other. |
|
Mining Bees
usually dig tunnels in the ground. Some kinds
show the beginnings of social living. After a few
bees dig out a main tunnel, each female digs a
small, short tunnels in the side walls. She
provides this short tunnel with pollen and
nectar, and lays an egg on the food. Some kinds
of mining bees post a guard at the entrance to
the main tunnel. This guard bee attacks any
strangers. |
|
Mason Bees
sometimes build their nests in decaying wood or
in snail shells. One kind strengthens the snail
shell with its saliva and broken pieces of shell.
The female puts food in the shell, lays an egg,
and buries the whole nest in the ground. Another
kind of mason bee builds its nest on a wall or
large stone. It gathers clay, moistens it with
saliva, and forms cells that stick out from the
wall. The female provides the cells with food and
lays in egg in each. Then she covers the group of
cells with a mixture of clay and saliva. The clay
hardens and protects the eggs. |
| |
Cuckoo Bees
cannot provide for their young, because they have
no pollen baskets on their hind legs. Some kinds
of cuckoo bees lay their eggs in the nests of
other solitary bees. The cuckoo bee larvae
usually emerge first and eat the food before the
other larvae hatch. Another kind of cuckoo bee
enters a bumblebee nest and kills the queen. The
workers accept the cuckoo bee as queen. She lays
her eggs and the workers take care of them. Young
cuckoo bees leave the nest when they are adults. |
Honeybee
Questions or comments about this
page?
|
