Bees and Wasps Pollinating
Painting of Bees and Wasps by Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert, undated. Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey and beeswax. Some species including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees live socially in colonies. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae. Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially; the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers.
Size: 2962px × 4650px
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Photo credit: © Science History Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: apicology, apiculture, arthropod, arthropoda, bee, beekeeping, bees, cornell, friedrich, historic, historical, history, honey, honeybee, insects, keeping, kuhnert, library, melittology, painting, pollinate, pollinating, pollination, university, wasps, wilhelm
