Childrens Illustrated Encyclopedia

69

Bees and wasps

HONEYBEES, BUMBLEBEES, and common

wasps are a familiar sight to many of us,

but there are thousands more,

such as carpenter bees,

stingless bees, mud wasps,

and potter wasps. Bees

and wasps first existed

millions of years ago and

live in almost every part of

the world. These insects fly

well, and the movement of

their powerful wings makes the buzzing sound.

Many bees and wasps are solitary, living in a

nest in the ground or in a hollow plant stem.

Some, such as bumblebees and honeybees, live

in large groups, or colonies, in trees, roofs, and

rocks. In a bumble bee colony, the queen

resembles her workers and shares

many of their jobs. In a honeybee

colony, however, the queen does not

share these jobs and spends most of

her life laying eggs. A honeybee

colony may contain 50,000 bees.

Beekeepers used to

destroy the hive and the

bees to harvest honey

from straw hives,

or skeps.

Drone (male)

mates with

queen bee,

then dies.

Workers gather food, care

for young, and clean and

protect the hive.

Wasp eggs develop

into larvae inside

the nest.

Only female wasps

(the queen and

workers) sting.

PArASITIc wASPS

These wasps paralyze spiders and insects,

then lay eggs on their victim. These eggs

hatch into larvae that eat the animal alive.

BEEHIvE

Beekeepers

provide hives

where the

honeybees raise their young and store

their food of honey. Inside the hive

are rows of wax combs full of eggs,

growing larvae (grubs) and pupae, the

queen with her drones (males) and

workers, and cells of stored pollen and

honey. In a hive there may be about

40,000 worker bees, a few hundred

drones, and one queen.

Shaft of

wasp’s sting

cOMMON

wASP

Yellow and

black markings

warn other

animals of the

wasp’s venomous

sting. Some wasps

use the sting as

a defense against

predators and to

kill or subdue prey.

Bees sting only if

they are provoked.

wASP’S NEST

After the winter

hibernation, the

queen wasp builds

a papery nest. The

queen scrapes up and

chews wood, mixes

it with saliva to make

a pulp, then builds the nest

with the pulp. The queen wasp lays

eggs in hexagonal (six-sided) cells inside the

papery nest, then catches and chews up insects

to feed to the growing larvae. The larvae

develop into worker adults who continue

to enlarge and reinforce the nest. The

males and the new queen are produced

later in the season. A big nest may house

5,000 workers. They fly out to feed on

plant sap, fruit, and nectar.

BEE dANcE

when a honeybee finds a good source of food,

it informs other bees in the hive by “dancing”

in a figure-eight pattern. The bee dance shows

the other bees where the source of nectar or

pollen is in relation to the position of the sun.

Eggs hatch

into larvae

after a few

days. The

larvae become

pupae, then

adult bees.

Queen honeybee

lays 1,500 eggs

every day during

the summer.

Honey is a food that bees

produce and store inside

the hive. The bees feed on

honey through the winter.

Find out more

Animals

Flowers and herbs

Insects

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