Bees are perhaps the insects that most arouse our fascination and curiosity. With the exception of Antarctica, they are found on all continents, in all habitats that contain insect-pollinated flowering plants. Representations of humans collecting honey from wild bees date back to 15,000 years ago, and pots of honey have even been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs like Tutankhamen. Although we generally have a fixed idea about what cartoon bees look like, there are thousands of species around the world, with different sizes, colors and behaviors. There are even several examples of solitary bees, many without stingers, and even some species that survive by plundering other weaker colonies. But something that has consistently impressed researchers is the organization of their hives, which are truly highly populated cities with an efficiency to make any urban planner envious.
Bee societies are complex, divided into hierarchical groups. Among females, there is the queen bee, much larger than the others, responsible for laying eggs. There are also the workers, who divide themselves to perform all the other functions in the hive, such as the construction of brood cells, feeding, collection of food outside the hive, defense and cleaning of the nest. The colony males are drones, in smaller numbers, whose only function is to fertilize the queen during the nuptial flight. This organization has slight differences between species. For example, the Mirim Droriana species, common in Brazil, always keeps a princess bee imprisoned (an unfertilized queen bee), ready to exercise its function in the event of the death of the queen bee.
When we approach the physical structures of the hives, the variety of construction types is also huge. While Apis Melifera stocks honey in traditional hexagonal combs, there are species that create true nesting skyscrapers. The Australian species Tetragonula carbonaria, for example, is one that lacks the well-known and feared stingers for defense. That does not mean that they do not have protection mechanisms, however. The architecture inside their hives is constructed in a way that beetles and other invading insects who try to infiltrate the nests end up lost in the maze and are killed covered by a mixture of wax, mud and vegetable resin.
