Non-honey bees

Today is the International Women’s Day. Best wishes to all female readers of my blog! It’s a good opportunity to mention that the world of bees is ruled by females. And no, I’m not referring to the queens of social bee colonies. In fact, they are not as powerful as their title suggests.

What I mean is that the vast majority of tasks is done by females, without any assistance from the opposite sex. Females collect food for their offspring, build nests and (in some species) actively protect them from predators and parasites. In social species, all the workers are female and they care for their siblings and the queen. Most (but not all) of the bees you see on the flowers on a warm summer’s day are likely to be females.

And what do the males do in the world of bees? Their role is also very important, though much smaller. But that’s a topic for another post 🙂