Your+friendly+neighborhood+Honey+Bee

** Taxonomy ** Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Family: Apidae Subfamily: Apinae Tribe: Apini Genus: Apis There are four members of the genus Apis. The only species of Honey Bee in the western hemisphere is //A. mellifera //or the European Domestic Honey bee (pictured above) the other three species are confined to Asia ([|1]).

Physical Description
The only species of Honey Bee found in Vermont is //A. mellifera. //A adult honey bee will reach about 1.2 cm long, depending on the specific strain of Honey Bee. Coloration may vary but generally the bee will alternate between black and a yellowish/orange stripes on their abdomen. Their head and thorax is covered with hair that may also have the same yellow/orange color. Honey bees possess powerful eye site as well as two odor detecting antennae ([|1]). Since it is a insect, // Apis mellifera //will have six legs in addition to two sets of wings.



Habitat
The European Honey Bee has by far the largest habitat, touching six of the seven continents on Earth. Their diet consists of honey which is produced from pollen. This pollen must be collected from flowers in surrounding woodland and meadows. Since Honey Bees need to harvest pollen from large amounts of flowers, Honey Bees will place their hive in the most central spot possible. This generally means establishing their hive in woodland near a meadow or in more suburban areas improvised locations such as a hedgerow ([|2]). When selecting trees, a tree with a thicker trunk and in decaying health are the most sought after. Tree species does not seem to influence selection ([|3]). Bees will construct hives in which to store their honey and raise their young. Hives are composed of combs of six sided cells in two layers. These cells are constructed out of wax produced inside of the worker's bodies ([|1])

Sex, Castes and Hive Life
Honey Bees have different castes that serve different purposes as most eusocial insects do([|1]). Each colony must be started by a queen, obviously this individual is a female. Once established a queen can give birth to two other castes in addition to new queens to start fresh colonies. Drones are the only males in the colony and are haploid. In other words male drone bees have only one set of chromosomes. This is one of the signatures of Hymenoptera, haplodiploidy means that unfertilized eggs hatch into males while fertilized eggs produce females. Drones are larger than workers and appear only during the summer months. Workers are females that have not reached maturity. There is nothing separating workers from queens genetically, the only difference is that future queens continue to eat royal jelly during their larval stage rather than being cut off ([|1]). Bees have a specialized method of communication, they use a combination of sounds and dance steps to communicate the location of pollen sources to their peers back in the hive ([|4]). Interestingly it has been found that the practice of polyandry, where many males mate with a single female, generates a more genetically diverse workforce which in turn increases the amount of "waggle-dance" signals ([|4]).

Life alongside humans
For a long period of human history honey was the only source of sugar for many civilizations around the world. T his means that humans and Honey Bees have a very long relationship together ([|1]). Honey Bee hives have been domesticated for thousands of years in order to collect the honey. In more modern times however, Honey Bees have taken on another role as well, because bees pollinate flowers by transferring pollen from flower to flower, Honey Bees are used to pollinate domesticated plants on farms ([|1]). Recently however a disturbing trend of colonies collapsing and their occupants disappearing has started to occur ([|5]). This trend not only threatens the survival of Honey bees but also threatens to drastically harm our agricultural system. If Bees are no longer available to pollinate plants on farms, either an alternative will have to be found or those crops will no longer be able to be grown.

Created by L. Lalire **Citations** (1) "honeybee." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. < [] >.

(2) Morandin, LA, and C. Kremen. "Hedgerow Restoration Promotes Pollinator Populations and Exports Native Bees to Adjacent Fields." //Web of Knowledge //. Thomas Reuters, June 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. .

(3) Oleksa, A., and R. Gawronski. "Rural Avenues as a Refuge for Feral Honey Bee Population." //Web of Knowledge //. Thomas Reuters, June 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. .

(4) Carr-Markell, MK, KM McDonald, and HR Mattila. "Intracolonial Genetic Diversity Increases Chemical Signaling by Waggle-dancing Honey Bees, Apis Mellifera." //INSECTES SOCIAUX //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> 60.4 (2013): 485-96. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Web of Knowledge //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=WOS&search_mode=MarkedList&qid=16&SID=2D66ircmfumN5NXaUe7&page=1&doc=1&colName=WOS>.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">(5) Russell, S., AB Barron, and D. Harris. "Dynamic Modelling of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Colony Growth and Failure." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">ECOLOGICAL MODELLING //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> 265 (2013): 158-69. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Web of Knowledge //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?page=1&qid=21&log_event=yes&viewType=fullRecord&SID=2D66ircmfumN5NXaUe7&product=WOS&doc=4&search_mode=GeneralSearch&excludeEventConfig=ExcludeIfFromFullRecPage>.

Images
1. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Organibees. Honey Bee with Pollen<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Digital image. Organibees<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Wordpress, 05 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://organibees.wordpress.com/category/bee-facts/>. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">2. honeybee: body plan<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">. Art. Encyclopædia Britannica Online<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. < <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #004d99; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">[] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">>.

3.//<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> Honey Bees Know the World Is Round and Can Calculate Angles //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. Digital image. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">Today I Found out //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/05/honey-bees-know-the-world-is-round-and-can-calculate-angles/>.