FFF40 - WHERE THE BEE SUCKS...

Honey bees are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, there are only seven recognised species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies, though historically, anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognised. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees.

Most species have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two of these species have been truly domesticated, one (Apis mellifera) at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids, and only that species has been moved extensively beyond its native range. Species of Apis are generalist floral visitors, and will pollinate a large variety of plants, but by no means all plants. Of all the honey bee species, only Apis mellifera has been used extensively for commercial pollination of crops and other plants. The value of these pollination services is commonly measured in the billions of dollars.

Join me for Floral Friday Fotos by linking your flower photos below, and please leave a comment once you have done so!

FFF40

1.	guild-rez Canada	10.	Modern Mom	19.	Emille	28.	Flower Art Friday
2.	NatureFootstep Photo	11.	Jama-Singapore	20.	Laurel	29.	Mary, MI
3.	NixPixMix	12.	Cecilia Artista, Sweden	21.	Karin M.	30.	Squirrel Queen
4.	Bernie in Australia	13.	Hamilton, Canada	22.	Lazy J Bar C Farm	31.	ann nz
5.	Kalantikan, Perennial Blooms	14.	Rajesh, India	23.	Lotta	32.	Joy: Flowers that brightens up one's life!
6.	Luna Miranda	15.	Aktuella bilder, Sweden	24.	Synnöve	33.	Matkatar, Finland
7.	anastasia	16.	LadyD	25.	Chris	34.	Carole M/Australia
8.	BirgittaB	17.	Prem	26.	Sara Chapman in Seattle, USA	35.	Lillianna in Sweden
9.	Fitness Buff	18.	HoodPhoto OR-USA	27.	Sara Chapman in Seattle, USA	36.	Valerie, Australia

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