We've all eaten honey, and several of us supplement our diets by eating helpful bee byproducts like bee pollen. However, there are many completely different species of bees; that ones create honey, and what do different kinds of bees do?

There are regarding twenty five,000 identified species of bees worldwide (concerning four,000 within the United States), all of that are classified below the superfamily Apoidea. These are divided into nine families, four of that are very tiny in terms of numbers of species.

We tend to are most acquainted with one family of bees, Apidae, which includes honey bees and bumblebees. Honey bees, of course, manufacture honey; these are social bees that live in colonies of 50,000 to 60,000 employees, three hundred drones, and sometimes a single queen. Honey bee colonies are very advanced in terms of behavior and overall perform; these bees behave for the survival of the colony, and not for individual survival. There are ten broad sorts of honey bee worldwide, and one hybrid variety, the Africanized bee, or "killer bee." The European honey bee is most typically kept by beekeepers, for the purpose of harvesting honey and bee byproducts.

Bumblebees are from the family Apidae, however bumblebee colonies are much smaller than those of honey bees, generally hosting only a few hundred employee bees. Like honey bees, bumblebees are excellent pollinators of numerous flowers; their bodies are quite furry, trapping pollen simply because the bees move from flower to flower to eat. And bumblebees do in fact create honey, similar in texture and taste to honey from honey bees however greenish-golden in tint rather than the pure golden color of regular honey. Bumblebees create relatively small quantities of honey -- their colonies are therefore tiny -- and it's difficult to harvest, thus bumblebee honey is typically not found on the market.

There are yet more members of the Apidae family, solitary rather than colonizing. Digger bees usually build their nests within the soil, rearing their young in soil tunnels; their bodies are furry, and generally up to 3 centimeters long. Digger bees usually nest in close proximity to each other, giving the looks of a colony, however every female is acting independently, protecting and collecting pollen for her young. These bees are nonaggressive and will not sting unless they're trapped in clothing. Carpenter bees, on the opposite hand, nest in previous wood; like digger bees, they are solitary, but often nest in shut proximity to every other.

Leafcutter bees and mason bees are members of the Megachilidae family; they're solitary, with leafcutters creating nests in hollow plant stems and ready-created holes in wood and mason bees nesting in previous mortar and various crevices. With solitary bees, it's the feminine that mates and rears her young on her own; like social bees, the males serve no purpose other than to mate with fertile females. Many of these solitary bees are increasingly being reared commercially for pollination purposes, especially as honey bee populations around the globe are dwindling for as yet unexplained reasons.

Mining bees belong to the Andrenidae family; this family includes thousands of species around the world. Conjointly solitary, mining bees excavate tunnels and cells underground in that to rear their young; their tunnels are often visible as small mounds in the ground, admire worm casts. A nest might contains a main tunnel with five or six branches every containing an egg cell. Mining bees prefer sandy soil. They are doing not cause any harm to a garden, and should be welcomed as effective pollinators.

Bees of the Halictidae family are often known as "sweat bees" because they are attracted by perspiration; females will give a minor sting if trapped. These bees nest in the bottom or in wood, and they are social, though their caste system differs from that of honey bees or bumblebees. And therefore the Colletidae family includes plasterer bees, therefore known as as a result of they sleek the walls of their nest cells with secretions that dry into a lining resembling cellophane. These are solitary bees, found largely in Australia and South America.

Four alternative bee families -- Melittidae, Meganomiidae, Dasypodaidae, and Stenotritidae -- are terribly little in range of species; these rare bees are found in Africa or Australia.

Bees are much more diverse in sort and behavior than would at 1st appear. You're presumably to encounter honey bees and bumblebees, but most all bees are effective pollinators, and as such a valuable link in our international ecosystem.