Bees, wasps and ants belong to the order Hymenoptera. The worker bees (infertile females) are usually about 2/3 inch long. There are 3 casts: queen, drone (male) and worker. Individual colonies may have 20,000 to as high as 80,000 bees. Social behavior is highly developed in the honey bee. There is only one egg-laying queen in the hive and she mates only once. She can lay as many as 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day, and may live as long as 5 years. Workers live only about 5 to 7 weeks during the summer. Drones usually live only a few weeks.
The workers have a barbed stinger at the end of the abdomen that is used to sting people and animals that threaten the colony. The stinger gets caught under the skin due to the barbs and when the bee tries to pull away, the bee's insides are torn from its body, thus killing the bee.
The honey bee is a very important insect, in addition to the honey that it produces, because it pollinates fruit trees, crops, flowers and other plants. It can become a serious pest when it establishes a nest around buildings and other structures. The honey bee can be compared to the beautiful rose with its beauty and aroma - one has a stinger, the other a thorn.

Return to
Bug Exhibits

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page