Bee
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bees are flying insects in the ant/bee/wasp order Hymenoptera. There are about 20,000 species of bees. Bees collect pollen from flowers. Bees can be found on almost all continents but not on Antarctica.
Some species of bees, the honey bees (called Apis by biologists), are kept by humans for honey. Keeping bees to make honey is called beekeeping, or apiculture.
[edit] Bee bodies
Like other insects, the body of a bee can be divided into three parts: the head, thorax (the middle part), and abdomen (the back part). Also like other insects, bees have three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings. Many bees are hairy and have yellow and black or orange and black warning colours.
Many bees have stingers (pointy things, like a needle) on the back end of their bodies. If they get confused, angry, or scared they can sting, which hurts. Once a worker bee has stung it dies after a short while, but other bees and wasps can sting many times. Some people are very allergic to bee stings and can even die from them.
[edit] Bees that live in groups
Some bees are eusocial insects; this means they live in organized groups called colonies. Honey bees, the kind of bee used in beekeeping, are eusocial. When humans give honey bees a home, the colony is called a hive.
There are three types of bees in a honey bee colony. A queen bee is the most important bee in the colony because she lays the eggs. The queen is usually the mother of the worker bees. Worker bees are females too, and they are the bees that collect pollen from flowers and will fight to protect the colony. Drone bees (males) mate with the queen bee so that she can lay eggs.