The queen, on the right with a larger, darker body, is bigger than the worker bees in the colony and lives several times longer.
Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images
A queen’s main job in the hive is to lay eggs and pass genes on to offspring. But many bee species do just fine without queens or big colonies.
Theresia Krausl
Studies have struggled to capture how pesticides affect bees outside of a lab.
A honeybee approaches a sunflower at Wards Berry Farm in Sharon, Mass.
John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Inert ingredients are added for purposes other than killing pests and are not required under federal law to be tested for safety or identified on pesticide labels.
Walkley Bank Allotments, Sheffield, UK.
Richard Bradley / Alamy Stock Photo
Maintaining a diversity of insects may be key for crop pollination in cities.
Kirill Demchenko/Shutterstock
We all know bees are vital pollinators. But they’re also art critics, social learners, dancers and so much more.
Bees that can adapt to the changing climate around us offer hope for more research and better policy and conservation efforts.
(Shutterstock)
Seventy-two per cent of native bumblebee species in North America are cutting their winter hibernation short by timing their emergence to earlier spring onsets.
Bombus lucorum white-tailed bumble bee foraging on Sea Holly.
Rusana Krasteva/Shutterstock
We take it for granted that we can compare multiple memories when faced with a tough choice. But not every animal’s mind works that way.
A bumblebee visits a blooming honeysuckle plant.
Sidorova Mariya | Shutterstock
Up to 85% of the nectar available to pollinating insects in a city comes from gardens. What we plant – whether in an allotment or a window box – can make a huge difference.
Red mason bee just hatched out of its cocoon.
Hazet/Wikimedia Commons
First ever feeding experiments reveal that solitary bees need to carb-load – and can be picky when it comes to dieting.
Hummingbird pollinators.
Shutterstock/Ondrej Prosicky
We studied how foxgloves taken to the Americas less than 200 years ago have changed compared to natives in Europe.
Sleeping on the job?
Maciej Olszewski/Shutterstock
Chemicals banned in the EU were recently granted an exemption for limited use in the UK.
Serhii Brovko/Shutterstock
While long-term exposure of lower levels of radiation for wildlife around Chernobyl is still being debated, new research provides insight into the effects on bumblebee populations.
Frank Wagner/Shutterstock
July 15, 2020
Rinke Vinkenoog , Northumbria University, Newcastle ; Katherine Baldock , Northumbria University, Newcastle ; Mark Goddard , Northumbria University, Newcastle , and Matthew Pound , Northumbria University, Newcastle
Urban green spaces can be a rich habitat for diverse pollinators, if they’re managed properly.
Wildflowers proliferating in overgrown roadsides during the coronavirus pandemic are providing habitat for pollinators.
(Shutterstock)
Temporary reductions in carbon dioxide during the pandemic won’t turn the tide on climate change or biodiversity loss, but summon the need for action.
Northern amber bumble bee queen (Bombus borealis ) on a dandelion flower.
Sarah A. Johnson
One bee may lay thousands of offspring in late spring. Give her room to build a nest and manage her reproductive duties.
Native bumble bees perform ‘buzz pollination,’ shaking flowers to release protein-rich pollen.
A. Westreich
‘Bee-washing,’ marketing claims that purport to help bees, can diminish the important distinction between a honey bee and native bee.
Tobias Maschtaler/Unsplash
A new study has found that European and North American bumblebee populations have shrank by a third since 1970.
The Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) has been found in Cairns. It’s just one of the introduced bees buzzing under the radar.
Tobias Smith
Bees innocuously buzzing ‘round the birdbath may be a barometer for burgeoning bee invasions.
If this sunflower was treated with sulfoxaflor, the bumblebee pollinating it has something to worry about.
Dominik Scythe/Unsplash
Regulators are still licensing insecticides without properly assessing whether they harm the wildlife on which we rely.
A buff tailed bumble bee emerges from a crocus covered in pollen.
thatmacroguy/Shutterstock
For human planting to support bee diversity, we need to know which flowers the insects want to visit.