Bumblebee in the context of "Bee"

Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees. The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees, but also includes stingless bees (also used for honey production), carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees, and a number of other less widely known groups. Many are valuable pollinators in natural habitats and for agricultural crops.

Müllerian mimicry is a type of biological mimicry in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, converge in appearance to mimic each other's honest warning signals. This convergence of appearance achieves the following benefit to species that undergo it: predators need only experience a single unpleasant encounter with any member of a set of Müllerian mimics in order to thereafter avoid all creatures of similar appearance, whether or not it is the same species as the initial encounter. A ring of distinct species is thereby protected from their mutual predators by attempted predation upon any one of its members. The phenomenon is named after the German-Brazilian naturalist Fritz Müller, who proposed the concept in 1878, supporting his theory with a mathematical model of frequency-dependent selection, one of the first such models anywhere in biology.

Müllerian mimicry was first identified in tropical butterflies that shared colourful wing patterns, but it is found in many groups of insects such as bumblebees, as well as in other animals such as poison frogs and coral snakes. The mimicry need not be restricted to that detected by vision—many snakes share auditory warning signals. Similarly, the defences involved are not limited to toxicity—anything that tends to deter predators, such as foul taste, sharp spines, or defensive behaviour can make a species unprofitable enough to predators to allow Müllerian mimicry to develop.

Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family Apidae (subfamily Apinae), and are closely related to common honey bees (HB, tribe Apini), orchid bees (tribe Euglossini), and bumblebees (tribe Bombini). These four bee tribes belong to the corbiculate bees' monophyletic group. Meliponines have stingers, but they are highly reduced and cannot be used for defense, though these bees exhibit other defensive behaviors and mechanisms. Meliponines are not the only type of bee incapable of stinging: all male bees and many female bees of several other families, such as Andrenidae and Megachilidae (tribe Dioxyini), also cannot sting.

Some stingless bees have strong mandibles and can inflict painful bites. Some species can present large mandibular glands for the secretion of caustic defense substances, secrete unpleasant smells or use sticky materials to immobilise enemies.

Bee learning and communication includes cognitive and sensory processes in all kinds of bees, that is the insects in the seven families making up the clade Anthophila. Some species have been studied more extensively than others, in particular Apis mellifera, or European honey bee. Color learning has also been studied in bumblebees.

Honey bees are sensitive to odors (including pheromones), tastes, and colors, including ultraviolet. They can demonstrate capabilities such as color discrimination through classical and operant conditioning and retain this information for several days at least; they communicate the location and nature of sources of food; they adjust their foraging to the times at which food is available; they may even form cognitive maps of their surroundings. They also communicate with each other by means of a "waggle dance" and in other ways.

The bourdon is the heaviest of the bells that belong to a musical instrument, especially a chime or a carillon, and produces its lowest tone. The name derives from the French word for bumblebee.

As an example, the largest bell of a carillon of 64 bells, the sixth largest bell hanging in the world, in the Southern Illinois town of Centralia, is identified as the 'bourdon.' It weighs 5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb) and is tuned to G. In the Netherlands where carillons are native, the heaviest carillon is in Grote Kerk in Dordrecht (South Holland).

Pollinator decline is the reduction in abundance of insect and other animal pollinators in many ecosystems worldwide that began being recorded at the end of the 20th century. Multiple lines of evidence exist for the reduction of wild pollinator populations at the regional level, especially within Europe and North America. Similar findings from studies in South America, China and Japan make it reasonable to suggest that declines are occurring around the globe. The majority of studies focus on bees, particularly honeybee and bumblebee species, with a smaller number involving hoverflies and lepidopterans.

The picture for domesticated pollinator species is less clear. Although the number of managed honey bee colonies in Europe and North America declined by 25% and 59% between 1985-2005 and 1947-2005 respectively, overall global stocks increased due to major hive number increases in countries such as China and Argentina. Nevertheless, in the time managed honeybee hives increased by 45% demand for animal pollinated crops tripled, highlighting the danger of relying on domesticated populations for pollination services.

Müllerian mimicry is a type of biological mimicry in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, converge in appearance to mimic each other's honest warning signals. This convergence of appearance achieves the following benefit to species that undergo it: predators need only experience a single unpleasant encounter with any member of a set of Müllerian mimics in order to thereafter avoid all creatures of similar appearance, whether or not it is the same species as the initial encounter. A ring of distinct species is thereby protected from their mutual predators by attempted predation upon any one of its members. The phenomenon is named after the German-Brazilian naturalist Fritz Müller, who proposed the concept in 1878, supporting his theory with a mathematical model of frequency-dependent selection, one of the first such models to be deployed in biology.

Müllerian mimicry was first identified in tropical butterflies that shared colourful wing patterns, but it is found in many groups of insects such as bumblebees, as well as in other animals such as poison frogs and coral snakes. The mimicry need not be restricted to that detected by vision—many snakes share auditory warning signals. Similarly, the defences involved are not limited to toxicity—anything that tends to deter predators, such as foul taste, sharp spines, or defensive behaviour can make a species unprofitable enough to predators to allow Müllerian mimicry to develop.