A worker bee is any female bee that lacks the reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee and carries out the majority of tasks needed for the functioning of the hive. While worker bees are present in all eusocial bee species, the term is rarely used (outside of scientific literature) for bees other than honey bees, particularly the European honey bee (Apis mellifera). Worker bees of this variety are responsible for approximately 80% of the world's crop pollination services.[1]
Worker bees are the caste of bee that perform most of the fundamental tasks of the hive, and they are by far the most numerous type of bee.[2] They are much smaller than drones or queen bees, with bodies specialized for nectar and pollen collection. They perform different tasks around the hive progressively over their lifespans in a predictable order based on their age.[3]
Worker bees gather pollen in the pollen baskets on their back legs and carry it back to the hive where it is used as food for the developing brood. Pollen carried on their bodies may be transferred to another flower, where a small portion can rub off on the pistil, resulting in cross pollination. Nectar is sucked up through the proboscis, mixed with enzymes in the stomach, and carried back to the hive, where it is stored in wax cells and evaporated into honey.[4]
^Breeze, T. D.; Bailey, A. P.; Balcombe, K. G.; Potts, S. G. (2011-08-01). "Pollination services in the UK: How important are honeybees?". Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 142 (3): 137–143. Bibcode:2011AgEE..142..137B. doi:10.1016/j.agee.2011.03.020. ISSN 0167-8809. S2CID 83628314.
^"About Honey Bees | Types, races, and anatomy of honey bees". About Honey Bees | Types, races, and anatomy of honey bees. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
^"ENY-166/IN1102: The Social Organization of Honey Bees". Ask IFAS - Powered by EDIS. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
^"Bee Life Stages". 2006-12-31. Archived from the original on 2006-12-31. Retrieved 2023-11-28.
A workerbee is any female bee that lacks the reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee and carries out the majority of tasks needed for the functioning...
honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread...
laying workerbee is a workerbee that lays unfertilized eggs, usually in the absence of a queen bee. Only drones develop from the eggs of laying worker bees...
mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed from larvae selected by workerbees and specially fed in order to become...
honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and...
queen). Unlike the workerbees, drones do not sting. Honey bee larvae hatch from eggs in three to four days. They are then fed by workerbees and develop through...
Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia, is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary...
Manchester was granted city status in 1842. Notably, the motif of the workerbee has been widely used to represent the city as a symbol of industry. A...
maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such...
East African lowland honey bees. If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an East African lowland honey bee nest, she is not attacked, partly...
stingless bee species, whose workers are less than 2 millimetres (0.08 in) long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females...
Apis cerana, the eastern honey bee, Asiatic honey bee or Asian honey bee, is a species of honey bee native to South, Southeast and East Asia. This species...
of the network is inspired around the Greater Manchester symbol, the workerbee, with bus and tram liveries coloured yellow and black to represent this...
Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species)...
vulture bee eats is, upon return to the hive, regurgitated into a storage pot, where it will be further processed by workerbees. The vulture bee is sometimes...
on honey bees and is one of the most damaging honey bee pests in the world. A significant mite infestation leads to the death of a honey bee colony, usually...
relies on these rapid adjustments of population levels to rapidly expand workerbee populations after nectar becomes available in the spring, and, again,...
the same age. As the egg hatches, workerbees add royal jelly - a secretion from glands on the heads of young bees. For three days the young larvae are...
Unlike honey bees (Apis) or bumblebees (Bombus), Osmia species are solitary; every female is fertile and makes her own nest, and no workerbees for these...
of attack pheromones (below). Although it is widely believed that a worker honey bee can sting only once, this is a partial misconception: although the...
Worker policing is a behavior seen in colonies of social hymenopterans (ants, bees, and wasps) whereby worker females eat or remove eggs that have been...
mutations. The male bees' genetic makeup is therefore entirely derived from the mother, while the genetic makeup of the female workerbees is half derived...
bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus...
terrestris workers learn flower colours and forage efficiently. B. terrestris is part of the order Hymenoptera, which is composed of ants, bees, and wasps...
Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honey bee (AHB) and colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera)...
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