Many people think that in a bee colony, the queen bee guides the worker bees to work for the bee colony, but most bees do not live like this. According to the characteristics of bees such as feeding, nesting, colonization and reproduction, after long-term adaptation and evolution, their lifestyles are divided into four types: solitary, social, pirate parasitic and social parasitism:
a solitary life
More than 75% of bees are solitary, with most solitary bees nesting on the ground or in dead wood. Each mature female, without the help of any other bees, independently builds a nest, all nests are independent; she is also responsible for laying eggs herself and collecting nectar and pollen for her offspring. However, before the female's offspring appear, it usually leaves the nest or has died, and there is no contact between the parents and offspring.
Picture | a solitary bee
There is also an interesting phenomenon in solitary bees: before adulthood, most solitary bees experience a state of development called diapause. During diapause, bees can resist dry conditions and can save energy. Some solitary bees can stay in this state for up to 10 years! Diapause allows bees to wait for suitable nesting and foraging conditions until the right conditions are restored and the offspring of these bees will remain in the nest to continue living.
Stealing parasitic sex
About 15% of bees live a pedagogical parasitic life. For example, parasitic bees such as rhododendron bees and hime bees do not store pollen, nectar, and do not nest. Female cuckoo bees usually enter the host bee nest when other bees (host bees) are out foraging, lay eggs in the nest and leave. After the larvae of the parasitic bees hatch, these larvae have large mandibles that are used to kill the offspring of the host and eat the pollen balls originally left to the host larvae.
Many species in the apiaceae and bees family camp thieves parasitically live. They can choose bees in the same family that are more closely related as hosts, or they can choose bees from different families.
For bees, they belong to harmful taxa.
Pictured| a parasitic wasp
Social life
Only about 9% of all bee species are social lifestyles. In social groups, many bees live in the same nest, and each female plays a different role. Worker bees collect pollen and nectar for bee colonies to protect them from intruders, and female worker bees are unable to reproduce. The queen bee produces offspring and does not forage or leave the colony.
Pictured | two social bees
Social life is divided into two types: primary social and high social.
High sociality
The most typical are domestic bees and spineless bees, which are clearly hierarchically differentiated in their colonies. The queen bee can lead the worker bee to build a new nest, but the queen cannot live alone, cannot take care of herself or her offspring, and is only responsible for laying eggs, and the worker bee undertakes a variety of functions such as taking care of the nest and offspring. The hive is used for a long time and for many years, and there is a close relationship between the parents and offspring in the bee colony.
Primary sociality
Bumblebees, sweat bees and carpenter bees are primary social beings. The new colony is started by a female bee, who builds a nest, forages and lays eggs. After the first offspring of the bees are born, the life of the bee colony has just begun, and the colony has grown from small to large and slowly developed into a colony.
Pictured| two socially active bees
Social parasitics
Social parasitic wasps make up only a small part of bee diversity, at only about 0.5 percent. Social parasitic wasps attack camps social bee nests. Female parasitic bees enter the bee nest, attack or expel the queen, replace the queen, and then, the parasitic queen lays eggs, and the original colony of worker bees breed parasitic offspring without realizing that the queen has been replaced.
Article Source: Dr. Bee app