Bees generously offer man honey, pollen, glues and an example of social organization. The common honeybee is Apis mellifera, originally from Asia and Europe and introduced by the English and Spaniards to America. It lives in permanent colonies, formed by a queen (in exceptional cases two), worker bees (between 10,000 and 150,000) and between 500 and 1,500 drones or males. Unlike females, these do not have stingers.

Whether it is artificial or natural, the bees' home is called beehive. In the interior, the workers use wax to construct the honeycombs (formed by cells shaped like hexagonal prisms), where they store honey and pollen to feed both the larvae and the adults.

The queen exclusively lays eggs: about 3,000 per day. The drones' job is to fertilize the queen bee. When one achieves it, the workers exterminate them all. One of the larvae is selected, fed royal jelly and becomes queen.

From each colony one or more clusters normally comes off every year - always with a queen - that settles in another place (always near where there are flowers) and founds a new colony. Thus the species propagates.

Specifications

Common name: Bee, common bee, honey bee

Scientific name: Apis mellifera

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Apidae

Distribution: Europe, Asia, America

Habitat: Places with flowers.

Honeybees are not the only Apidae. Some bumblebees also create colonies, but never as numerous. There also are solitary bees, like the large carpenter bee, that constructs its nest in the wood beams of old buildings. Wasps, however, belong to another family: they are not Apidae, but Vespidae. They can be social or solitary. And they also bite, so be careful.