Types of bees in the world

Melifera bee, o of the most common types of bees

There are currently about 25,000 species of bees in the world. The vast majority are wild and solitary. Only a few are organised in large hives and can produce honey, in interesting quantities for use in beekeeping. Among the bees used in beekeeping, the most interesting is the European honeybee, which Europeans exported to the United States and Australia. There are also more types of bees that produce honey commercially, such as the melipona, dorsata and some others.

Index of the article:

  1. Bee species in the world
  2. Other types of bees, wild bees

Summary: Of the more than 20,000 species of bees, the vast majority are solitary and produce very little honey. Of these, only a few produce honey, propolis,pollen and wax in quantities that allow them to be commercially exploited. Also, each one produces honey with unique characteristics due to its food source and types of bees. In addition, in our shop in Las Rozas de Madrid you have at your disposal a fantastic selection of honeys from honey bees.

Other related articles: Unpasteurized raw honey.. Where to buy quality raw honey. Flowers for honey. Types of bees in the world. History, bees and pollination. Urban beekeeping, a new extension. The honeybee. Bees, their honey and curiosities.

1. Bee species in the world

There are many species of bees that collect the nectar from the flowers in order to make honey, store it and use it as an energy source in periods of food shortage. However, only a few species of bees living in large colonies are able to store honey in sufficient quantities for beekeeping industry. Among the selected bee species are those of the genus Apis (honey bees) Trigona and Melipona (Melipona).

a) The species Apis:

Eight of the nine species of the genus Apis are found in Southeast Asia, the ninth, the Apis mellifera is native to Europe and Africa, although it has colonized many other man-made territories of the world during the last century.

Of the bees of the Apis genus found in Asia, some can be reared in hives and others cannot, as some species only build individual honeycombs in the open. All of them can be divided into three groups if we look at their size; the Apis florea, the Apis dorsata and the Apis cerana.

  • The Apis florea Fabricus and Apis andreniformis Smith.

They are small size species, which build a single honeycomb. They are about three times smaller in size than the melliferous Apis and are found in Southeast Asia up to an altitude of about 500 m. The honey production of Apis florea is very low, due to the small size of the hives.

Apis florea, a bee species

Photo 1: Bee of the species Apis florea

Video 1: The Apis bee blooms

b) The Apis dorsata Fabricus and the Apis laboriosa Smith

They are two giant species that build a single large honeycomb. Apis binghami Cockrell and Apis breviligula Maa are probably two subspecies of Apis dorsata. All of them are located in Southeast Asia at altitudes of up to 2,000 m. The honey production of Apis dorsata is collected in the cliffs of difficult access where they normally place the hives.

Apis dorsata, a bee species

Photo 2: Bee of the species Apis dorsata

Vídeo 2:  Apis dorsata bee

c) Apis cerana Fabricus and Apis koschewnikowi Butel-Reepen, as well as Apis nigrocinta Smith and Apis nuluensis Tinget, Koeniger and Koeniger

Today they are considered as two different species of Apis cerana. These bees are medium-sized and build their nests with several combs in cavities. India is the birthplace of Apis cerana, which is distributed from Japan to Afghanistan. Apis cerana hives are smaller than European hives and they swarm and leave their nests very easily.

Apis cerana Fabricus, a bees especies

Photo 3: Bee of the species Apis cerana

Vid3o 3: Apis cerana

  • Bee of the species Apis cerana

The honey bee is one of the nine most interesting species in beekeeping, the main reason why man has spread it all over the world.

The group of Apis mellifera would have evolved from the bees of the Middle East derived from Apis cerana, and from here three lineages were formed. These lineages would have evolved independently of each other, giving rise to 23 races or subspecies of Apis mellifera.

Apis mellifera, a bee especies

Photo 4: Bee of the species Apis mellifera

Vídeo 4: La Apis melífera

d) The Trigona species:

The trigona bee is the smallest bee that stands out for not having a hole and measuring about 2 mm in length.

Apis Trigona, a bee species

Phot 5: Bee of the species Apis Trigona

Vídeo 5: Trigona bee

e) The species Melipona:

They are also small bees, about 15 mm long, with little hair and a non-pointed abdomen.

Apis Melipona, bees species

Photo 6: Bee of the species Apis Melipona

Video 6: Melipona bee

As a curiosity, the so-called killer bee that has caused some deaths each year and has colonized the American continent up to the south of the United States, was imported in 1956 queens of the species Apis m. scutellata to Basil in order to study them and increase honey production in these places, but they escaped the queens and they have come to colonize this entire territory. Beekeepers and people living in these areas must be careful because they are very aggressive, like many of the species in Africa.

2. Other types of bees in the world

There are currently about 25,000 species or types of bees in the world, but only the above few produce honeys in interesting quantities. Many of them are solitary, and the honey they produce is of such small quantity that they have no use in beekeeping.

Most wild bees are solitary, and specialise in one type of flower and plant. They are bee species that follow the life cycle of the flower. At present there is not much research on the types of bees we have in Spain, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that there are around 1965 species of bees in Europe, and that the vast majority are solitary.

Bumblebees pollinate and feed on flower pollen, but they do not make honey. They are also disappearing from the earth, for the same reasons as bees. The abusive use of agrochemicals, diseases imported from other countries such as varroa…, climate change is causing bees and all kinds of insects to disappear.

Mortality of honey bees is easier to control and solve. In the case of wild bees it is very difficult to count them and avoid their extinction, for the same reason that not all the species that exist are known.

3. More than 470 bee species identified in the US and Mexico

In an extensive area of about 16 km2 between the borders of the USA and Mexico, a group of researchers have found an area rich in biodiversity. In addition, there is a large number of insect species in this area, where more than 470 species have been found that have adapted perfectly to this area with a very arid and dry climate.

Exactly this area of great diversity is located between the deserts of Sonora and Chihuahua where these 470 species of bees are found. This number represents 14 % of the bee fauna of the USA.

The study was carried out by the University of Rochester with the help of students from Mexico, Guatemala and the USA. It has been published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

Furthermore, all these bees are solitary bees that have neither queen nor worker bees and obtain food from a few flowers there.

4. Some curiosities

Among the thousands of bee species that exist in the world, we have some curiosities among them:

a) An androgynous bee in Ecuador.

The National Institute of Biodiversity (Inabio) of Ecuador has discovered an androgynous bee in their country. It is therefore a bee that is half female and half male. The study was published in the international journal “Sociobiology”.

In this research they detail how their left side has male characteristics and their right side has female traits.

Likewise, the researchers believe that all these anomalies are probably due to problems during their development, due to possible double fertilisation or genetic errors.

In short, these are the types of bees you can find in the world. However, they are difficult to spot and classify, except for beekeepers who know the honey bee species. We hope this article will be of interest to you.

5. Different colours of bees within the hive

Within the same species of bees, there is also a diversity of colours between them. Diversity that occurs in any living being within the same species. Therefore, if we focus on the same hive, not all bees have the same colour, each one has something different. This is due to the genetic diversity of each individual.

a) Genetic diversity in the hive

The fact that the hive has bees with different colours is a clear sign of good bee health. It shows a high genetic diversity among the bees.

The queen bee mates a few days after birth with 12 to 20 drones, male bees. She does this in a flight outside the hive and mates with drones from different hives. After mating, he returns to his hive to gradually lay his eggs so that the future bees can hatch from them. Therefore, half of the genetic material comes from the queen bee, but the other half from the other drones.

The drones may come from more distant hives, and therefore have very different genetics from each other. Consequently, they each have variations in colour. This is what justifies the variation of colours within the hive and the genetic health between the hives. Otherwise, inbreeding and the disappearance of the hive would occur.

b) Do bees change colour?

The answer to this question is no. Bees do not change colour during their lifetime. However, to our eyes we may appear to see a change. Because bees can change their appearance. An example of this is a worker bee. After a long day’s work they may lose some of their body hair and this gives the impression that the bees have changed colour. Another reason is also due to a fight they have had with each other, which has caused them to lose some of their hair.

On the other hand, it is important to be careful if the change in appearance is due to the bees’ poor health. They can take on a greasy appearance due to illness.

In short, the different colours of the bees are due to the genetics of the individual bees. Half of them come from a single queen and the rest from different parents. Consequently, this is a trait of a healthy bee hive.

6. Are bees included in the insect group?

When classifying living beings, we always base our classification on their anatomy.

All living things are classified according to the following order:

Kingdom, phylum or division, class, order, family, genus and species.

a) But what are insects?

In order to be classified as an insect, a living thing must meet two requirements. The first is that it must have three pairs of legs. The second is that its body consists of several parts or segments.

In this classification system, within this phylum or division, bees fall into the category of arthropods. They have to have an exoskeleton, a body divided into segments and three pairs of legs.

The next level of classification is the class. The class insecta includes all the insects of the world. They are divided into at least 29 orders. Bees would be in the hymenoptera.

Coleoptera – beetles
Diptera – flies
Hymenoptera – ants, wasps, bees
Lepidoptera – butterflies and moths.

b) Characteristics of bees

The characteristics of a bee are as follows:Its body consists of several segments or parts.

  1. It has three pairs of legs
  2. It has wings, of which two pairs are transparent, membranous wings attached to its thorax. In addition, the presence of four wings is a distinguishing feature of insects.
  3. It has antennae that are long and connected to its head.
  4. Their sensory systems allow bees to detect and perceive their surroundings and include pheromones.
  5. Exoskeleton. An external skeleton that protects them and shapes their body.
  6. Undergo metamorphosis. Bees undergo metamorphosis by going through four stages in their life, from egg, larva, pupa and finally becoming an adult bee.

Sources:

Tratado de apicultura. Ediciones omega

Boletín de La Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura: http://www.fao.org/

Página web Abejapedia:

Enciclopedia agrícola:

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