Bees | Gentle Reading To Help You Sleep

Relax with this calm bedtime reading designed to help you drift into peaceful sleep and ease insomnia. Discover how bees live, work, and communicate in one of nature’s most extraordinary societies. Benjamin’s soothing voice guides you through a world of honeycombs, hives, and pollination—perfect for relaxation and gentle learning before rest. There’s no whispering or hypnosis here, just fact-filled calm to quiet your mind and melt away the stress of the day. Let the steady rhythm of this reading help you unwind and find comfort in understanding the bees’ quiet importance to our world. Press play, settle in, and drift off. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time.

I'm your host Benjamin Boster and today's episode is about bees.

Bees are winged insects that form a monophyletic clade Encephala within the superfamily Apoidea of the order Hymenoptera.

With over 20,

000 known species and 7 recognized families.

Some species,

Including honey bees,

Bumble bees,

And stingless bees,

Are social insects living in highly hierarchical colonies,

While most species,

More than 90%,

Including mason bees,

Carpenter bees,

Leafcutter bees,

And sweet bees,

Are solitary.

Members of the most well-known bee genus Apis,

I.

E.

Honey bees,

Are known to construct hexagonally-celled waxy nests called hives.

Unlike the closely related wasps and ants,

Who are carnivorous,

Omnivorous,

Bees are herbivorous and specifically feed on nectar and pollen,

The former primarily as a carbohydrate source for metabolic energy,

And the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients for their larvae.

They are found on every continent except Antarctica,

And in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants.

The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae or sweet bees,

But they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies.

Bees range in size from tiny,

Stingless bee species,

Whose workers are less than 2mm long,

To the leaf gutter bee Megachile pluto,

The largest species of bee,

Whose females can attain a length of 39mm.

Vertebrate predators of bees include primates and birds,

Such as bee-eaters.

Insect predators include bee-wolves and dragonflies.

Bees are best known to humans for their ecological roles as pollinators,

And in the case of the best-known species,

The western honeybee for producing honey,

A regurgitated and dehydrated viscous mixture of partially digested monosaccharides,

Kept as food storage of the bee colony.

Pollination management via bees is important,

Both ecologically and agriculturally,

And the decline in wild bee populations has increased the demand and value of domesticated pollination by commercially managed hives of honeybees.

The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain for the first time from 1980-2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980.

Human beekeeping,

Or apiculture,

Melaponiculture for stingless bees,

Has been practiced as a discipline of animal husbandry for millennia,

Since at least the times of ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.

Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore,

Through all phases of art and literature,

From ancient times to the present day,

Although primarily focused in the northern hemisphere,

Where beekeeping is far more common.

In Mesoamerica,

The Maya have practiced large-scale intensive melaponiculture,

Since pre-Columbian times.

The immediate ancestors of bees were stinging wasps in the family Amenoplaneti,

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.

The same evolutionary scenario may have occurred within the Vespoid wasps,

Where the pollen wasps evolved from predatory ancestors.

Based on phylogenetic analysis,

Bees are thought to have originated during the early Cretaceous,

About 124 million years ago,

On the supercontinent of West Gondwana,

Just prior to its breakup into South America and Africa.

The supercontinent is thought to have been a largely xeric environment at this time.

Modern bee diversity hotspots are also in xeric and seasonal temperate environments,

Suggesting strong niche conservatism among bees ever since their origins.

Genomic analysis indicates that despite only appearing much later in the fossil record,

All modern bee families had already diverged from another by the end of the Cretaceous.

The Melitidae,

Apidae,

And Megakilidae had already evolved on the supercontinent prior to its fragmentation.

Further divergences were facilitated by West Gondwana's breakup around 100 million years ago,

Leading to a deep Africa-South America split within both the Apidae and Megakilidae.

The isolation of the Melitidae and Apidae in Africa and the origins of the Coletidae and Drinidae and Halictidae in South America.

The rapid radiation of the South American bee families is thought to have followed the concurrent radiation of flowering plants within the same region.

Later in the Cretaceous,

80 million years ago,

Coleted bees colonized Australia from South America with an offshoot lineage evolving into the Steno-Trinity.

And by the end of the Cretaceous,

South American bees had also colonized North America.

The North American fossil taxon,

Cretotrigona,

Belongs to a group that is no longer found in North America,

Suggesting that many bee lineages went extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

Following the K-Pg extinction,

Surviving bee lineages continued to spread into the Northern Hemisphere,

Colonizing Europe from Africa by the Paleocene,

And then spreading east to Asia.

This was facilitated by the warming climate around the same time,

Allowing bees to move to higher latitudes following the spread of tropical and subtropical habitats.

By the Eocene,

Roughly 45 million years ago,

There was already considerable diversity among eusocial bee lineages.

A second extinction event among bees is thought to have occurred due to rapid climate cooling around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary,

Leading to the extinction of some bee lineages,

Such as the tribe Melochertini.

Over the Paleogene and Neogene,

Different bee lineages continued to spread all over the world,

And the shifting habitats and connectedness of continents led to the isolation and evolution of many new bee tribes.

The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were shallow,

Cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as beetles.

So the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before the first appearance of bees.

The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents,

With behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination,

And are the most efficient pollinating insects.

In a process of co-evolution,

Flowers developed floral rewards such as nectar and longer tubes,

And bees developed longer tongues to extract the nectar.

Bees also developed structures known as scopal hairs and pollen baskets to collect and carry pollen.

The location and type differ among and between groups of bees.

Most species have scopal hairs on their hind legs or on the underside of their abdomens.

Some species in the family Apidae have pollen baskets on their hind legs,

While very few lack these and instead collect pollen in their crops.

The appearance of these structures drove the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms and in turn bees themselves.

Bees co-evolved not only with flowers,

But it is believed that some species co-evolved with mites.

Some provide tufts of hair called a carinaria that appear to provide lodgings for mites.

In return,

It is believed that mites eat fungi that attack pollen,

So the relationship in this case may be mutualistic.

Bees differ from closely related groups such as wasps by having branched or plume-like seedy hairs.

Combs on the forelimbs for cleaning their antennae,

Small anatomical differences in limb structure,

And the venation of the hind wings,

And in females by having the seventh dorsal abdominal plate divided into two half plates.

Bees have the following characteristics,

A pair of large compound eyes which cover much of the surface of the head,

Between and above these are three small simple eyes,

Oscilli,

Which provide information on light intensity.

The antennae usually have 13 segments in males and 12 in females,

And are geniculate,

Having an elbow joint part way along.

They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch,

Smell,

And taste.

And small hair-like mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to hear sounds.

The mouth parts are adapted for both chewing and sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for sucking up nectar.

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 synchronized 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 stene.

The largest species of bee is thought to be Wallace's giant bee,

Megachile Pluto,

Whose females can attain a length of 39 millimeters.

The smallest species may be dwarf stingless bees,

Whose workers are less than two millimeters in length.

According to inclusive fitness theory,

Organisms can gain fitness not just through increasing their own reproductive output,

But also that of close relatives.

In evolutionary terms,

Individuals should help relatives when cost is less than relatedness times the benefit.

The requirements for eusociality are more easily fulfilled by haplodiploid species,

Such as bees,

Because of their unusual relatedness structure.

In haplodiploid species,

Females develop from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs.

Because a male is haploid,

Has only one copy of each gene,

His daughters,

Which are diploid,

With two copies of each gene,

Share 100% of his genes and 50% of their mothers.

Therefore,

They share 75% of their genes with each other.

This mechanism of sex determination gives rise to what W.

D.

Hamilton termed super-sisters,

More closely related to their sisters than they would be to their own offspring.

Workers often do not reproduce,

But they can pass on more of their genes by helping to raise their sisters as queens than they would by having their own offspring,

Each of which would only have 50% of their genes,

Assuming they would produce similar numbers.

This unusual situation has been proposed as an explanation of the multiple,

At least nine,

Evolutions of eusociality within Hymenoptera.

Haplodiploidy is neither necessary nor sufficient for eusociality.

Some eusocial species,

Such as termites,

Are not haplodiploid.

Conversely,

All bees are haplodiploid,

But not all are eusocial.

And among eusocial species,

Many queens mate with multiple males,

Creating half-sisters that share only 25% of each other's genes.

But monogamy,

Queens mating singly,

Is the ancestral state for all eusocial species so far investigated,

So it is likely that haplodiploidy contributed to the evolution of eusociality in bees.

Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities.

Eusociality appears to have originated from at least three independent origins in elected bees.

The most advanced of these are species with eusocial colonies.

These are characterized by cooperative brood care and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive adults,

Plus overlapping generations.

This division of labor creates specialized groups within eusocial societies,

Which are called castes.

In some species,

Groups of cohabitating females may be sisters,

And if there is a division of labor within the group,

They are considered semi-social.

The group is called eusocial if,

In addition,

The group consists of a mother,

The queen,

And her daughters,

Workers.

When the castes are purely behavioral alternatives,

With no morphological differentiation other than size,

The system is considered primitively eusocial,

As in many paper wasps.

When the castes are morphologically discreet,

The system is considered highly eusocial.

True honey bees are highly eusocial and are among the best-known insects.

Their colonies are established by swarms,

Consisting of a queen and several thousand workers.

There are 29 subspecies of one of these species,

Apis mellifera,

Native to Europe,

The Middle East,

And Africa.

Africanized bees are a hybrid strain of A.

Mellifera that escaped from experiments involving crossing European and African subspecies.

They are extremely defensive.

Stingless bees are also highly eusocial.

They practice mass provisioning,

With complex nest architecture,

And perennial colonies also established via swarming.

Many bumblebees are eusocial,

Similar to the eusocial Vespidae,

Such as hornets,

In that the queen initiates a nest on her own,

Rather than by swarming.

Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population,

Which occurs in mid to late summer.

Nest architecture is simple,

Limited by the size of the pre-existing nest cavity,

And colonies rarely last more than a year.

In 2011,

The International Union for Conservation of Nature set up the Bumblebee Specialist Group to review the threat status of all bumblebee species worldwide,

Using the IUCN Red List criteria.

There are many more species of primitively eusocial than highly eusocial bees,

But they have been studied less often.

Most are in the family Helictidae,

Or sweet bees.

Colonies are typically small,

With a dozen or fewer workers on average.

Queens and workers differ only in size,

If at all.

Most species have a single season colony cycle,

Even in the tropics,

And only mated females hibernate.

A few species have long active seasons,

And attain colony sizes in the hundreds.

Some species are eusocial in parts of their range,

And solitary in others,

Or have a mix of eusocial and solitary nests in the same population.

The orchid bees include some primitively eusocial species with similar biology.

Some allodapine bees form primitively eusocial colonies,

With progressive provisioning.

A larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops,

As is the case in honeybees and some bumblebees.

Most other bees,

Including familiar insects,

Such as carpenter bees,

Leaf gutter bees,

And mason bees,

Are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile,

And typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself.

There is no division of labor,

So these nests lack queens and worker bees for these species.

Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax.

Bees collect pollen to feed their young,

And have the necessary adaptations to do this.

However,

Certain wasp species,

Such as pollen wasps,

Have similar behaviors,

And a few species of bees scavenge from carcasses to feed their offspring.

Solitary bees are important pollinators.

They gather pollen to provision their nests with food for their brood.

Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency.

Some solitary bees have advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies.

Very few species of solitary bee are being cultured for commercial pollination.

Most of these species belong to a distinct set of genera,

Which are commonly known by their nesting behavior or preferences.

Namely,

Carpenter bees,

Sweet bees,

Mason bees,

Plasterer bees,

Squash bees,

Dwarf carpenter bees,

Leafcutter bees,

Alkali bees,

And digger bees.

Most solitary bees are fossorial,

Digging nests in the ground in a variety of soil textures and conditions,

While others create nests in hollow reeds or twigs,

Or holes in wood.

The female typically creates a compartment,

A cell with an egg,

And some provisions for the resulting larvae,

Then seals it off.

A nest may consist of numerous cells.

When the nest is in wood,

Usually the last,

Those closer to the entrance,

Contain eggs that will become males.

The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid,

And usually dies after making one or more nests.

The males typically emerge first,

And are ready for mating when the females emerge.

Solitary bees are very unlikely to sting,

Only in self-defense,

If ever,

And some are stingless.

While solitary,

Females each make individual nests.

Some species,

Such as the European mason bee and the Dawson's burrowing bee,

Are gregarious,

Preferring to make nests near others of the same species,

And giving the appearance of being social.

Large groups of solitary bee nests are called aggregations.

To distinguish them from colonies.

In some species,

Multiple females share a common nest,

But each makes and provisions her own cells independently.

This type of group is called communal,

And is not uncommon.

The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when multiple females use that same entrance regularly.

The life cycle of a bee,

Be it a solitary or social species,

Involves the laying of an egg,

The development through several molds of a legless larva,

A pupation stage during which the insect undergoes complete metamorphosis,

Followed by the emergence of a winged adult.

The number of eggs laid by a female during her lifetime can vary from eight or less in some solitary bees to more than a million in highly social species.

Most solitary bees and bumblebees in temperate climates overwinter as adults or pupae and emerge in spring when increasing numbers of flowering plants come into bloom.

The males usually emerge first and search for females with which to mate.

Like the other members of the Hymenoptera,

Bees are haplodiploid.

The sex of a bee is determined by whether or not the egg is fertilized.

The egg is generally oblong,

Slightly curved and tapering at one end.

Solitary bees lay each egg in a separate cell with a supply of mixed pollen and nectar next to it.

This may be rolled into a pellet or placed in a pile and is known as mass provisioning.

Social bee species provision progressively,

That is,

They feed the larvae regularly while it grows.

The nest varies from a hole in the ground or in wood in solitary bees to a substantial structure with wax combs in bumblebees and honeybees.

In most species,

Larvae are whitish grubs,

Roughly oval and bluntly pointed at both ends.

They have 15 segments and spiracles in each segment for breathing.

They have no legs but move within the cell,

Helped by tubercles on their sides.

They have short horns on the head,

Jaws for chewing food,

And an appendage on either side of the mouth tipped with a bristle.

There is a gland under the mouth that secretes a viscous liquid which solidifies into the silk they use to produce a cocoon.

The cocoon is semi-transparent and the pupa can be seen through it.

Over the course of a few days,

The larvae undergoes metamorphosis into a winged adult.

When ready to emerge,

The adult splits its skin dorsally and climbs out of the exuviae and breaks out of the cell.

Antoine Magnon's 1934 book,

Le Vol des Insectes,

Says that he and André Saint-Lagay had applied the equations of air resistance to insects,

And found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations,

But that one shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality.

This has led to a common misconception that bees violate aerodynamic theory.

In fact,

It merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight.

And that their flight is explained by other mechanics,

Such as those used by helicopters.

In 1996,

It was shown that vortices created by many insect's wings helped to provide lift.

High-speed cinematography and robotic mock-up of a bee wing showed that lift was generated by the unconventional combination of short,

Choppy wing strokes.

A rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction.

And a very fast wingbeat frequency.

Wingbeat frequency normally increases as size decreases.

But as the bee's wingbeat covers such a small arc,

It flaps approximately 230 times per second,

Faster than a fruit fly at 200 times per second.

Which is 80 times smaller.

The ecologist Carl von Frisch studied navigation in the honeybee.

He showed that honeybees communicate by the waggle dance,

In which a worker indicates the location of a food source to other workers in the hive.

He demonstrated that bees can recognize a desired compass direction in three different ways.

By the sun,

By the polarization pattern of the blue sky,

And by the earth's magnetic field.

He showed that the sun is the preferred or main compass.

The other mechanisms are used under cloudy skies or inside a dark beehive.

Bees navigate using spatial memory,

With a rich map-like organization.

The gut of bees is relatively simple,

But multiple metabolic strategies exist in gut microbiota.

Pollinating bees consume nectar and pollen,

Which require different digestion strategies by somewhat specialized bacteria.

While nectar is a liquid of mostly monosaccharide sugars,

And so easily absorbed,

Pollen contains complex polysaccharides,

Branching pectin and hemicellulose.

Approximately five groups of bacteria are involved in digestion.

Three groups specialize in simple sugars,

And two other groups in complex sugars.

Bacteria that cannot digest polysaccharides obtain enzymes from their neighbors,

And bacteria that lack certain amino acids do the same,

Creating multiple ecological niches.

Although most bee species are nectarivorous and polynivorous,

Some are not.

Particularly unusual are vulture bees in the genus Trigona,

Which consume carrion and wasp brood,

Turning meat into a honey-like substance.

Drinking getation drops from leaves is also a source of energy and nutrients.

Thanks for listening to the I Can't Sleep Podcast.

Happy sleeping.

Reviews

Thank you, Benjamin! 😻😻
Bees are fascinating little beings. I don’t like wasps, etc. but we love our pollinators! 💙