Honey bee, Tatra Mountains, Poland

© Mirek Kijewski/Getty Image

Honey bee flying over crocuses

The humble honey bee may be small, but this hard worker from the Apidae family has a huge effect on the food we eat. According to the United Nations, pollinators like the honey bee are responsible, at least in part, for three out of four crops across the globe producing fruits or seeds for use as human food. And tens of thousands of flowering plants, like the crocuses in today’s photo, would not exist if it weren’t for bees.

These pollen-hunting arthropods are a feat of nature. Their success is largely due to their ability to fly great distances – up to five kilometres from their hives – and reach speeds of 24 kilometres per hour. Scientists argued for many years about how they could fly at all, considering their small wings and large bodies. But we now know that bees have two sets of wings, one larger outer set and one smaller inner set, which are connected by small hooks called hamuli. To help them carry greater weights, their wings can twist and rotate during flight, beating up to 230 beats per second.

Among their other surprising strengths are that they can recognise human faces, they can communicate through dance and their queen can choose the gender of her larvae. Add these abilities to the important role bees play in our ecosystem, and we can begin to understand why we need to protect these multitalented pollinators.