Bees are essential pollinators and play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and food production. With over 20,000 species worldwide, bees are a diverse and complex group of insects. The most well-known species is the honeybee (Apis mellifera), famous for producing honey and living in structured colonies with a queen, workers, and drones.
Bees have a fascinating social structure. Worker bees are female and perform various roles throughout their lives, including nursing larvae, foraging, and guarding the hive. The queen is the only fertile female and lays all the eggs, while drones, the male bees, primarily exist to mate with the queen. Bees communicate using the ‘waggle dance’ to convey the location of food sources. As pollinators, bees are critical to food production, aiding in the growth of crops like almonds, apples, and berries. Their decline due to factors such as pesticide use, habitat loss, and climate change is a significant concern.
