Beautiful exotic bees from Curiosities of entomology.

Curiosities of entomology.

Beautiful exotic bees.

Bees may be little, but they have a big job! Many kinds of bees are pollinators, or animals that move pollen that is made of grains from the male part of the flower called the anther. Pollen is transferred to the female part of the flower called a stigma and fertilizes the female ovule. Pollination is important to produce seeds, develop fruit, and maintain the diversity of plant life in an ecosystem. Pollinator bees have special hair on their legs and thorax, or the part of their body between the neck and abdomen that helps them collect and carry pollen. Since many crops, like vegetables, rely on bees for pollination in order to thrive, the bees’ fuzzy legs are important for food production. However, as many bees lose their habitats, suffer colony collapse disorder, and are exposed to pesticides, or substances used to destroy harmful organisms like insects on plants and crops, the bee population has significantly decreased. You may not want to be around bees since they sting, but it’s important for bees to stay around!