a bee
There are more than 20,000 different species or types of bees, which are classified by characteristics such as how they build their hives, how they socialize, how they behave, and how they look. All types of bees belong to one of nine families that can be found throughout the world. They can also be divided into two large groups, which are social bees, which live in colonies, and solitary bees, which live alone.
Honey is produced by bees.
Social bees live in colonies that can contain up to 80,000 bees with one or more queens. Of the social bees, the best known are honey bees, stingless bees and bumblebees. Most bees are solitary, but these types of bees often build their nests close to each other. These bees do not contain worker bees, and each separate female acts as a queen, building her own nest and laying eggs in it. Examples of solitary bees include carpenter, cuckoo, mason, leafcutter, and miner bees.
A queen bee surrounded by attendants.
Honey bees are the only types of bees that produce honey and wax in sufficient quantities for humans to harvest. The honey and wax are used to build large hives that are made up of many cells and are used to rear and feed the young bees. Like most bees, they use a poisonous stinger to protect their homes and defend themselves, and will die if they need to use the stinger. An exception to this is the stingless bee, which uses its mandibles to bite despite having a tiny stinger. These bees live in tropical areas and are not found in the United States.
Bumblebees are larger types of bees and are usually mostly black, yellow, and covered in fine hairs. These bees do not die if they use their stinger and can sting repeatedly when defending themselves. The queen bee is the only member of the colony that survives the winter and starts a new colony in the spring.
One of the main types of solitary bees is the carpenter bee, which builds its nest on dead wood, twigs or bamboo. Carpenter bees dig a tunnel that they seal after laying an egg along with pollen and nectar. Another solitary bee is the cuckoo bee, which cannot feed its young because it cannot collect pollen on its hind legs. Some cuckoo bees have been known to lay their eggs in the nests of other solitary bees, which hatch before the other and “steal” any remaining food.