Honey Bees Impact On The Environment

Introduction

Honey Bees are flying insects. They are very closely related to the wasp and ants. Bees rely on pollen and nectar to live (Honey Bee Centre, 2019). The Honey bee is the most commonly domesticated bee species in the world (Australian Museum, 2019). The honey bee was introduced by European settlers to ensure that there was a good supply of honey (Australian Museum, 2019). The bee is usually brown with a band of yellow colour, there body is covered heavily in hair (Australian Museum, 2019). The Honey bee lives in large hives which are dominated by a queen bee, the queen bee lays the eggs in the hive of over 60,000 worker bees (Perfect Bee, 2019). Bees are located throughout Australia, they live in urban areas, forests and woodland areas (Australian Museum, 2019). A honey bee can do harm to a human by stinging them. The sting is injected into the person and removed from the bee. The sting then kills the bee. Some people are allergic to the honey bees sting and it would require medical attention.

About The Species

Classification

The Honey Bee is a part of the Animalia Kingdom (Rusty, 2019). within that it is classified into a group of insects which are called Hymenopetra, this means ‘Membrane Winged’ in Greek (History of Bees, 2019). There are over 100,000 types of Hymenopetra all over the world. Within that group, Honey Bees are then classified into the group Apidea, this group includes Bees and wasps (History of Bees, 2019). Within this group, they are then again classified into a smaller group called Apis. This group is grouped by the production and storage of honey (History of Bees, 2019).

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Adaptation

Adaptation is a process in which an animal evolves over time to develop features and traits to have a better chance of survival in their environment (National Geographic, 2019). Honey Bees have multiple adaptations to help them survive in the wild. These include:

• Colour – The honey bees brown and yellow colours helps the bee to be able to camouflage into flowers when gathering nectar, so that the predator is unable to see them. (Boojumbees, 2019)
• Stinger – The Honey Bee has a stinger located on the rear of its body. The stinger is a organ inside the bees body called a ‘ovipositor’. The job of this organ is to be able to precisely lay eggs. The honey bee adapted this organ with venom sacs to be able to sting the predator, the sting is very powerful to other animals. (Boojumbees, 2019)
• Hair – The Honey bees body is covered in hair. Because the honey bee wings beat intensely when they fly, it generates static electricity, this static builds up in the bee’s fur. Once the bee lands on the flower to collect nectar. The flowers pollen clings onto the fur because of the charge. The bees then use their feet to comb themselves which gathers and stores the nectar in the pollen baskets. (Boojumbees, 2019)
• Eyes – The Honey bee has eyes that are able to see in front, above and to the side all at once. Each bee has 5 eyes. This enables them to be able to see what’s coming in order to protect themselves. (Mary Beth Burns, 2019)

*Sense of Smell – the honey bee is able to smell using its two antennae’s. They have a strong sense of smell which enables them to be able to identify what the flower is merely on the scent. Bees are also able to communicate with smells. They are able to notify other bees of danger using the smell sense. (Mary Beth Burns, 2019)

Contribution To The Enviroment

Bees are important to maintain a healthy environment and economy. There are many contributions from the honey bee towards the environment.

• Diverse Eco System – The Honey Bee plays a part in multiple aspects of the ecosystem. The bee supports the growth of trees, flowers and plants. These then create food and shelter for big and small creatures. The Honey Bees has an important role in the food chain. Without the bee, the gardens would be bare and our plates would be empty. (Premiertech, 2019)
• Habitats for Wildlife – Bees create beehives for the colony to live in. The Honey Bee also help to build homes for millions of other bugs & animals. They have a vital role as pollinators in the growth of forests and woodlands. Many of the tree species (willows etc.) cannot grow without bees and other pollinators. (Premiertech, 2019)
• Food Source – Bees produce honey for humans and have done for a long time. Bees also produce honey to feed their colonies during the cold winter months. Animals like Birds, squirrels, possums and insects raid beehives to get honey.

Bees are also a part of the food chain, they are prey to over 20 different types of birds as well as spiders and insects. (Premiertech, 2019)

• Pollination – Honey Bees move from flower to flower to search for nectar, while they do that they leave behind pollen grains on the sticky surface of the flower which then allows the plants to grow as well as produce food (Premiertech, 2019)

How They Are Endangered

Recently, it was announced that Honey Bees are now an endangered animal. This is since beekeepers started noticing a decrease in hives (Jorgensen, 2019). This has resulted in Beekeepers suffering from financial stress due to less production from the bee hives. Scientists have investigated the reasons as to why Honey Bees have become endangered, these reasons include, climate change, new chemicals and diseases, parasites as well as bees suffering stress due to these issues. The most recent study has found that Bees endangerment has somewhat been caused by Colony Collapse Disorder (Jorgensen, 2019). CCD can be found by looking at what is left at the beehive. Usually all the adult working bees will have left the hive and only the queen bee will remain. There are however no dead bodies found in or around the hive (Jorgensen, 2019).

References

1. Animals.mom.me. (2019). What Are the Causes of Endangered Honey Bees?. [online] Available at: https://animals.mom.me/causes-endangered-honey-bees-7539.html [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
2. Bees, B. (2019). Bee Knowledgeable Answers: Honeybee Adaptation. [online] Boojumbees.blogspot.com. Available at: http://boojumbees.blogspot.com/2010/12/bee-knowledgeable-answers-honeybee.html [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
3. Honeybee.org.au. (2019). Wonderful World of Honey — Australian Honey Bee Industry Council. [online] Available at: https://honeybee.org.au/education/wonderful-world-of-honey/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
4. Honeybeecentre.com. (2019). About Honeybees - Honeybee Centre. [online] Available at: http://www.honeybeecentre.com/learn-about-honeybees [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].
5. National Geographic Society. (2019). Adaptation. [online] Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/adaptation/ [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].
6. PerfectBee. (2019). The Role of the Queen Bee - PerfectBee. [online] Available at: https://www.perfectbee.com/learn-about-bees/the-life-of-bees/role-queen-bee [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
7. Pthomeandgarden.com. (2019). 5 Ways Bees are Important to the Environment | Premier Tech Home and Garden. [online] Available at: http://www.pthomeandgarden.com/5-ways-bees-are-important-to-the-environment/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
8. Study.com. (2019). Bee Adaptations: Lesson for Kids | Study.com. [online] Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/bee-adaptations-lesson-for-kids.html [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019].
9. The Australian Museum. (2019). Honey Bee. [online] Available at: https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/insects/honey-bee/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2019]