What is the name of the largest bee in the world? What are the characteristics of a bee's wings?

Most people like to drink honey. We usually describe a happy smile as sweet as honey, which shows how sweet it is. In fact, although people like to drink honey, I guess not many people know about bees! Next, let's see what the largest bee in the world is called, and take you to explore the past and present of bees.

Contents of this article

1. What is the name of the largest bee in the world?

2. What are the characteristics of bee wings?

3. Where are bees distributed?

What is the largest bee in the world called?

European black bee

The European black bee is a subspecies of the honey bee, native to western Europe and northern eastern Europe. The European black bee is a nominative subspecies of the honey bee, one of the four major cultivated species in the world, and was distributed throughout the world with early European immigrants.

However, after hybridization, the bees have become ferocious and have been gradually eliminated in their native habitats. The pure European black bees in their native habitats are almost extinct. Now, only a few black bee strains are preserved under the protection of various countries, such as the British dark bees, German bees, Alpine bees, French brown bees, and Central Russian bees.

Australia has set up a European black bee protection zone in Tasmania. The Xinjiang black bees in mainland China are believed to be descendants of the Chinese and Russian black bees.

What are the characteristics of bee wings?

Hovering bees often flap their one-centimeter-long wings 240 times per second, with each flap only 90 degrees, which is smaller than other insects, but they flap faster. That's because other insects flap less than 200 times per second, with each flap more than 165 degrees. Researchers have found that bees can generate additional force by changing the direction of their wings. The scientists found that the lift generated by bees is not stable, but is greatest at the beginning, middle and end of each flap. Another strange force is known as the extra mass force, which peaks at the end of each flap. This force can also increase acceleration when the wings change direction.

Honey bees belong to the order Hymenoptera and the family Apidae. They are 8 to 20 mm long, yellowish brown or dark brown, and covered with dense hair. The head is almost as wide as the thorax. The antennae are knee-shaped, the compound eyes are oval and covered with hair, the mouthparts are chewing and sucking, and the hind legs are pollen-carrying legs. There are two pairs of membranous wings: the front wings are large, the hind wings are small, and the front and back wings are connected by a row of wing hooks. The abdomen is nearly oval, with less body hair than the thorax, and there are chelicerae at the end of the abdomen. There are four stages in the life cycle: egg, larva, pupa and adult.

Where are bees distributed?

Honey bees are distributed all over the world. Honey bees are social insects, consisting of queen bees, drones, worker bees and other individuals. There are many types of honey bees, mainly including small honey bees, black small honey bees, large honey bees, black large honey bees, Sabah honey bees, Suweilasi honey bees, green slave honey bees, western honey bees and oriental honey bees. The first four are wild bee species, distributed in Hainan, Guangxi and Yunnan, China, and the latter two include many subspecies, most of which are geographically isolated natural subspecies. Artificially bred honey bee varieties are mostly hybrids.

The geographical distribution of bees depends on the distribution of nectar plants. They are distributed all over the world, but there are more species in tropical and subtropical areas. The distribution of different subfamilies or genera has certain limitations. For example, bumblebees in the Apidae family are mainly distributed in the northern temperate zone, extending to the Arctic region, but there is no distribution record in tropical regions. The Brachyglossidae family is distributed in Australia; the subgenus of the carpenter bee tribe of the Apidae family is only distributed in Central Asia; the genus of stingless bees in the Apidae family is distributed in the tropics. Bees are distributed in different landscapes, and most of them live in desert steppes, grasslands, forest steppes, river valleys and mountains. Each landscape belt has representative genera or species, for example, the ground bumblebee is a forest steppe species, the genus Pseudo-geophilus is a typical steppe genus, and the genus Paraspermum is mostly steppe species.