The Bee (Apis mellifera) is an insect that belongs to the family Apidae.

Bees, both wild and honey bees, contribute through pollination, to the regulation of the ecosystem with 78% of flowering plants and remain the most economically valuable pollinators of crops worldwide (1).

Social organization:

the absolute leader is the Queen Bee who lays her eggs and around her revolve the female worker bees and the male bees or drones.

When the hive is too full, the Queen Bee swarms with some of the bees to another place and a newly hatched Queen Bee takes over the hive.

Their food:

Nectar, which provides processed sugars in honey that are suitable for long-term storage and is composed of other trace elements.

Pollen, which provides protein and is very important for the young. Carbohydrates, lipids, minerals and vitamins are found in pollen.

Royal Jelly is a secretion from the hypopharyngeal mandibular glands of young worker bees that feeds the royal larvae and includes all the phytonutrients needed by the future queen. In particular, it has antimicrobial activities against Gram-positive bacteria (2) and contains alpha tocopherol and coenzyme Q10 (3).

Their organic defenses against diseases:

Propolis. It is a resinous material, a natural glue that protects the hive against microorganisms and has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and antifungal properties. It consists of 50% resin, 30% wax, 10% essential and aromatic oils, 5% pollen and other substances 5% (4).

Their defense from natural enemies:

sting. The bee, unlike the wasp, can sting only once, after which it dies. Unlike wasps, which have a sharp stinger, bees have a hooked stinger, which makes it difficult to extract once it enters the skin. There is venom in the sting that contains varieties of peptides and proteins, including melittin, phospholipase A2, adolapin, and apamin (5), and has been found to be useful in treating dermatitis (6). The sting can result in acute urticaria or allergy or even, but in rare cases, an anaphylactic reaction.

Honey production:

Improving the health of honey bees requires reducing their exposure to insecticides, preventing and limiting disease, and providing a greater diversity of floral resources (7).

The language:

 Was discovered by an Austrian scientist, Karl von Frisch (1886-1964). More than a language, it is a dance that the bee begins when it returns to the hive and signals certain goals : 

• food nearby: dancing in circles
• food far away: dance in the shape of a figure eight

the distance to the food is communicated with the duration of the dance, so a 15-second dance might correspond to, for example, 150 meters.

Diseases :

Paenibacillus larvae: responsible for the American plague

Other dangerous bacilli:

 Melissococcus plutonius, Enterococcus faecalis , Paenibacillus alvei , laterosporus Brevibacillus , Bacillus pumilus e Achromobacter Euridice (8).

References_____________________________________________________________________

(1) McGregor, S. E. 1976 Insect pollination of cultivated crop-plants. U.S.D.A. Agriculture Handbook No. 496, 93–98. Version with some updated information for some crop species available at http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/book/

(2) Fratini F, Cilia G, Mancini S, Felicioli A. Royal Jelly: An ancient remedy with remarkable antibacterial properties.  Microbiol Res. 2016 Nov;192:130-41. doi: 10.1016/j.micres.2016.06.007. Review.

(3) Hryniewicka M, Karpinska A, Kijewska M, Turkowicz MJ, Karpinska J. LC/MS/MS analysis of α-tocopherol and coenzyme Q₁₀ content in lyophilized royal jelly, beebread and drone homogenate.  J Mass Spectrom. 2016 Nov;51(11):1023-1029. doi: 10.1002/jms.3821.

(4) Mavri A. et al. . Chemical properties and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Slovenian propolis. Chemistry & biodiversity 9, 1545–1558, doi: (2012).10.1002/cbdv.201100337

(5) Habermann, E. Bee and wasp venoms. Science 1972, 177, 314–322.

(6) Jung KH, Baek H, Kang M, Kim N, Lee SY, Bae H. Bee Venom Phospholipase A2 Ameliorates House Dust Mite Extract Induced Atopic Dermatitis Like Skin Lesions in Mice. Toxins (Basel). 2017 Feb 18;9(2). pii: E68. doi: 10.3390/toxins9020068.

(7) Goulson D., Nicholls E., Botías C. & Rotheray E. L. Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers. Science Express 347 (2015)

(8) Vezeteu TV, Bobiş O, Moritz RF, Buttstedt A. Food to some, poison to others - honeybee royal jelly and its growth inhibiting effect on European Foulbrood bacteria.  Microbiologyopen. 2017 Feb;6(1). doi: 10.1002/mbo3.397.