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Bees of the World
Covering all aspects of apian life and natural history, this illustrated guide demonstrates the wide diversity of these insects.
- GenresNonfictionAnimals
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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June 27, 2012
This was one of the best pop-science books I've found. It is a great introduction to a whole bunch of creatures I, until recently, didn't know I lived with, and which are both very interesting and very important. I was turned on to native bees by a presentation at the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service conference, and since then have been reading most things I can get my hands on regarding them, as well as taking lots of photos. I had already learned some of the things this book shares, but there was plenty of new information as well. It finally presented the whole group (superfamily Apoidea) in a coherent and inclusive way. I enjoyed the fact that it included stories from all over the world, but this was not overdone - it felt cosmopolitan rather than exotic, which was nice, since often these books leave one feeling like all the interesting phenomena are happening in the far-off tropics.
I'd read Derrick Jensen's review here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1VGYO3B... a while ago, before being interested in bees. I was brought back to this book since it is referred to by all the other authors (eg Eric Grissell) as a great pop-bee science book. So I was interested to compare my reading with his comments. His typically bitter and easily offended attitude comes out in the review, and I think it is unfortunately (as it often is) somewhat justified here. His first comment is embarrassing insofar as it betrays his failure to understand evolutionary terminology. His second is spot on: they really do act like scientific knowledge is only reason to care about conservation of obscure bees. This is appalling and astonishing in a book by bee scientists meant to convey the wonders of bees to an ignorant but open-minded readership.
That aside, however, I would highly recommend this book as a great introduction to one of the charmingest and most beautiful groups with whom we share the planet.
Here are the things I learned that I noted as interesting:
Bee larvae never defecate, to avoid fouling the pool of food, which they live in (esp. in cells as in A. mellifera nests). Their hindgut joins to their main gut during the pre-pupal stage, after which point the poop (all of it) is excreted as one unit, later incorporated into the cocoon that will yield an adult bee.
Confirmed my suspicion that most solitary bees are out only in the Spring and early Summer.
As always, mortality is quite high - in periods of bad weather and low food availability, mothers can dissolve and consume the nutrients of eggs one at a time, to feed themselves. Further, an estimated 20% of mining bee egg/larval chambers are lost to mold due to humidity regulation issues and contamination. Many mining bees create waxy, oily, or even macrocyclic lactone polymer (like nylon!) coatings to waterproof their brood cells. Shaping of pollen balls seems likely to be in order to minimize contact with contaminating cell wall. Some species go further, and the larva actually cradles pollen ball on top of itself to eliminate contact entirely.
Halictid sweat bees sometimes practice eusocial behavior, including the Halictus ligatus we have in the garden/orchard.
A German scientist learned bee dance language well enough to observe the dance of a scout bee reporting the location the hive would move to and beat the bees to it not once but three times.
Turned me on to this phenomenon: Japanese giant hornets kill whole nests of European honeybees, but are enveloped and roasted alive by native honeybees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EZtXN...
Apparently male honeybees aggregate at the same spot each year in the Spring, waiting for virgin queens to come find them (they also know to go to that same spot). No one knows how the same location is chosen year after year.
I'd read Derrick Jensen's review here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1VGYO3B... a while ago, before being interested in bees. I was brought back to this book since it is referred to by all the other authors (eg Eric Grissell) as a great pop-bee science book. So I was interested to compare my reading with his comments. His typically bitter and easily offended attitude comes out in the review, and I think it is unfortunately (as it often is) somewhat justified here. His first comment is embarrassing insofar as it betrays his failure to understand evolutionary terminology. His second is spot on: they really do act like scientific knowledge is only reason to care about conservation of obscure bees. This is appalling and astonishing in a book by bee scientists meant to convey the wonders of bees to an ignorant but open-minded readership.
That aside, however, I would highly recommend this book as a great introduction to one of the charmingest and most beautiful groups with whom we share the planet.
Here are the things I learned that I noted as interesting:
Bee larvae never defecate, to avoid fouling the pool of food, which they live in (esp. in cells as in A. mellifera nests). Their hindgut joins to their main gut during the pre-pupal stage, after which point the poop (all of it) is excreted as one unit, later incorporated into the cocoon that will yield an adult bee.
Confirmed my suspicion that most solitary bees are out only in the Spring and early Summer.
As always, mortality is quite high - in periods of bad weather and low food availability, mothers can dissolve and consume the nutrients of eggs one at a time, to feed themselves. Further, an estimated 20% of mining bee egg/larval chambers are lost to mold due to humidity regulation issues and contamination. Many mining bees create waxy, oily, or even macrocyclic lactone polymer (like nylon!) coatings to waterproof their brood cells. Shaping of pollen balls seems likely to be in order to minimize contact with contaminating cell wall. Some species go further, and the larva actually cradles pollen ball on top of itself to eliminate contact entirely.
Halictid sweat bees sometimes practice eusocial behavior, including the Halictus ligatus we have in the garden/orchard.
A German scientist learned bee dance language well enough to observe the dance of a scout bee reporting the location the hive would move to and beat the bees to it not once but three times.
Turned me on to this phenomenon: Japanese giant hornets kill whole nests of European honeybees, but are enveloped and roasted alive by native honeybees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EZtXN...
Apparently male honeybees aggregate at the same spot each year in the Spring, waiting for virgin queens to come find them (they also know to go to that same spot). No one knows how the same location is chosen year after year.
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