Bees: Heroes of the Garden

Honey bees, bumblebees, mining bees, dwarf bees, carpenter, leafcutter, and mason bees: bees come in many different types, with more than 16,000 species worldwide. The bees we are most familiar with, bumblebees and honey bees, live in colonies and play a major role in pollinating the crops, plants, and flowers around us. And bees produce honey, reputedly the food of the gods—a function of bees' lifecycle, which humans have exploited for millennia. Many bees today are domesticated, and beekeepers collect honey, beeswax, pollen, and royal jelly from hives for human use. Bees can communicate many ways through the movement of their wings and bodies, most famously with the “waggle dance,” where they make figure-eight circles to let other bees know the direction and distance of nectar. Bees is an outstanding collection of photographs showing these fascinating insects in their natural habitat. Hardcover Book with Printed Laminated Cover with Jacket; 9 x 11 11/16 inches; 224 pages.