Bees

Status
Not open for further replies.

[FnG]magnolia

[FnG]magnolia

[FnG]magnolia

Caporegime
Joined
29 Aug 2007
Posts
28,763
Location
Auckland
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination, and in the case of the best-known bee species, the European honey bee, for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently considered as a clade Anthophila. There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven to nine recognized families,[1] though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants.

Some species including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees live socially in colonies. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae. Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially; the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees.

Bees range in size from tiny 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 can attain a length of 39 millimetres (1.54 in). The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Vertebrate predators of bees include birds such as bee-eaters; insect predators include beewolves and dragonflies.

Human beekeeping or apiculture has been practised for millennia, since at least the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Apart from honey and pollination, honey bees produce beeswax, royal jelly and propolis. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, again since ancient times, and they feature in works of literature as varied as Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse, W. B. Yeats's poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree, and Laline Paull's The Bees. Bee larvae are included in the Javanese dish botok tawon, where they are eaten steamed with shredded coconut.

Did you know that:

The ancestors of bees were wasps in the family Crabronidae, which were predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects which were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario may have occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the pollen wasps evolved from predatory ancestors. Until recently, the oldest non-compression bee fossil had been found in New Jersey amber, Cretotrigona prisca of Cretaceous age, a corbiculate bee.[2] A bee fossil from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya), Melittosphex burmensis, is considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees".[3] Derived features of its morphology (apomorphies) place it clearly within the bees, but it retains two unmodified ancestral traits (plesiomorphies) of the legs (two mid-tibial spurs, and a slender hind basitarsus), showing its transitional status.[3] By the Eocene (~45 mya) there was already considerable diversity among eusocial bee lineages.[4][a]

The highly eusocial corbiculate Apidae appeared roughly 87 Mya, and the Allodapini (within the Apidae) around 53 Mya.[7] The Colletidae appear as fossils only from the late Oligocene (~25 Mya) to early Miocene.[8] The Melittidae are known from Palaeomacropis eocenicus in the Early Eocene.[9] The Megachilidae are known from trace fossils (characteristic leaf cuttings) from the Middle Eocene.[10] The Andrenidae are known from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, around 34 Mya, of the Florissant shale.[11] The Halictidae first appear in the Early Eocene[12] with species [13][14] found in amber. The Stenotritidae are known from fossil brood cells of Pleistocene age.[15]

So short story - bees are awesome.

It is usually easy to recognise that a particular insect is a bee. They differ from closely related groups such as wasps by having branched or plume-like setae (bristles), combs on the forelimbs for cleaning their antennae, small anatomical differences in the limb structure and the venation of the hind wings, and in females, by having the seventh dorsal abdominal plate divided into two half-plates.[22]

Behaviourally, one of the most obvious characteristics of bees is that they collect pollen to provide provisions for their young, and have the necessary adaptations to do this. However, certain wasp species such as pollen wasps have similar behaviours, and a few species of bee scavenge from carcases to feed their offspring.[22] The world's largest species of bee is thought to be the Indonesian resin bee Megachile pluto, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres (1.54 in).[23] The smallest species may be dwarf stingless bees in the tribe Meliponini whose workers are less than 2 millimetres (0.08 in) in length.[24]


Head-on view of a carpenter bee, showing antennae, three ocelli, compound eyes, sensory bristles and mouthparts
A bee has a pair of large compound eyes which cover much of the surface of the head. Between and above these are three small simple eyes (ocelli) which provide information for the bee on light intensity. The antennae usually have thirteen segments in males and twelve in females and are geniculate, having an elbow joint part way along. They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch (mechanoreceptors), smell and taste, and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to "hear" sounds. The mouthparts are adapted for both chewing and sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for sucking up nectar.[25]

The thorax has three segments, each with a pair of robust legs, and a pair of membranous wings on the hind two segments. The front legs of corbiculate bees bear combs for cleaning the antennae, and in many species the hind legs bear pollen baskets, flattened sections with incurving hairs to secure the collected pollen. The wings are synchronised in flight and the somewhat smaller hind wings connect to the forewings by a row of hooks along their margin which connect to a groove in the forewing. The abdomen has nine segments, the hindermost three being modified into the sting.[25]

Predators, parasites and pathogens

The bee-eater, Merops apiaster, specialises in feeding on bees; here a male catches a nuptial gift for his mate.
Further information: diseases of the honey bee
Vertebrate predators of bees include bee-eaters, shrikes and flycatchers, which make short sallies to catch insects in flight.[63] Swifts and swallows[63] fly almost continually, catching insects as they go. The honey buzzard attacks bees' nests and eats the larvae.[64] The greater honeyguide interacts with humans by guiding them to the nests of wild bees. The humans break open the nests and take the honey and the bird feeds on the larvae and the wax.[65] Among mammals, predators such as the badger dig up bumblebee nests and eat both the larvae and any stored food.[66]


The beewolf Philanthus triangulum paralysing a bee with its sting
Specialist ambush predators of visitors to flowers include crab spiders, which wait on flowering plants for pollinating insects; predatory bugs, and praying mantises,[63] some of which (the flower mantises) wait motionless, aggressive mimics camouflaged as flowers.[67] Beewolves are large wasps that habitually attack bees;[63] the ethologist Niko Tinbergen estimated that a single colony of the beewolf Philanthus triangulum might kill several thousand honeybees in a day: all the prey he observed were honeybees.[68] Other predatory insects that sometimes catch bees include robber flies and dragonflies.[63]

Honey bees are affected by parasites including acarine and Varroa mites.[69]

Tell me your bee thoughts please :)
 
bee-myself_o_1732195.jpg
 
Spam is a brand of canned precooked meat products made by Hormel Foods Corporation. The name itself means spiced ham. It was first introduced in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II.[1] By 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries on six continents and trademarked in over 100 countries.[2] In 2007, the seven billionth can of Spam was sold.[3]

According to its label, Spam's basic ingredients are pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Natural gelatin forms during cooking in its tins on the production line.[4]

By the early 1970s the name "Spam" was often misused to describe any tinned meat product containing pork, such as pork luncheon meat. With expansion in communications technology, it became the subject of urban legends about mystery meat and other appearances in pop culture.[5] Most notable was a Monty Python sketch portraying Spam as both ubiquitous and inescapable, characteristics which led to its name being borrowed for unsolicited electronic messages, especially spam email.[6]

Spam was introduced by Hormel in 1937. Ken Daigneau, brother of a company executive, won a $100 prize that year in a competition to name the new item.[3] Hormel claims that the meaning of the name "is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods executives", but popular beliefs are that the name is an abbreviation of "spiced ham" or "shoulders of pork and ham".[7] Another popular explanation is that Spam is an acronym standing for "Specially Processed American Meat".[8]

The difficulty of delivering fresh meat to the front during World War II saw Spam become a ubiquitous part of the U.S. soldier's diet. It became variously referred to as "ham that didn't pass its physical", "meatloaf without basic training",[1] and "Special Army Meat". Over 150 million pounds of Spam were purchased by the military before the war’s end.[9]

Domestically, Spam's chief advantages were affordability, accessibility, and extended shelf life.[9] However, in spite of Hormel using quality pork shoulder to make their product, rather than the lips, tongue, and snouts used by competitors, consumers could not tell the difference by their appearance.[10]

During World War II and the occupations which followed, Spam was introduced into Guam, Hawaii, Okinawa, the Philippines, and other islands in the Pacific. Immediately absorbed into native diets, it has become a unique part of the history and effects of U.S. influence in the Pacific.[11]

As a consequence of World War II rationing and the Lend-Lease Act, Spam also gained prominence in the United Kingdom. British prime minister during the 1980s Margaret Thatcher later referred to it as a “wartime delicacy”.[12][13] In addition to increasing production for the U.K., Hormel expanded Spam output as part of Allied aid to the similarly beleaguered Soviet Union.[14] Nikita Khrushchev declared: "Without Spam we wouldn't have been able to feed our army".[15] Throughout the war countries ravaged by the conflict and faced with strict food rations came to appreciate Spam.[16]


Tell me your spam thoughts please :)
 
The plot of Arrested Development revolves around the members of the Bluth family, who lead extravagant lifestyles,[33] and are also often drawn into interactions with incestuous undertones.[34] At the center of the show is Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), the show's straight man, who strives to do the right thing and keep his family together, despite their materialism, selfishness, and manipulative natures.[33] Michael is a widowed single father.[35] His teenage son, George Michael (Michael Cera), has the same qualities of decency but feels a constant pressure to live up to his father's expectations and is often reluctant to follow his father's plans.[33]

Michael's father, George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), is the patriarch of the family, who often goes to considerable lengths to manipulate and control his family.[36] His wife, and Michael's mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), is equally manipulative, materialistic, and hypercritical of every member of her family, as well as being a perpetual drunk.[33] In particular, she has a tight grip on her youngest son, Byron "Buster" Bluth (Tony Hale), who, as a result of her over-mothering, is socially inept and prone to panic attacks.[33]

Michael's older brother is George Oscar Bluth ("GOB") (Will Arnett), an unsuccessful professional magician whose business and personal schemes usually fail or become tiresome and are quickly abandoned.[33] His name is an acronym for George Oscar Bluth II, pronounced /dʒoʊb/, like the Biblical figure Job.[33] Michael's twin sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) is spoiled and materialistic, continually desiring to be the center of attention and attracted to various social causes.[37] She is married to Tobias Fünke (David Cross), a discredited psychiatrist-turned-aspiring actor.[33] Tobias is a self-diagnosed "never-nude" (a disorder comparable to the phobia gymnophobia), whose language and behavior have heavily homosexual overtones to which he seems completely oblivious and which are the center of much tongue-in-cheek comedy throughout the series.[37][38] Their daughter is Mae "Maeby" Fünke (Alia Shawkat), a rebellious teen, whose chief motivation is defying her parents, in an effort to get their attention.[33]
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom