The colored bees, who fear their painful sting and are responsible for the pollination process, begin to acquire a new face thanks to the study of scientists who have shown that these insects are conscious beings capable of perception and sensations that are considered the simplest level of consciousness. .
Released in March of this year, the book What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees reveals that bees are capable of highly developed emotions, a limited level of consciousness, and can even dream.
The ability to recognize faces
Written by entomologist Steven Buchmann, a professor of entomology, ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who has been devoted to studying these tiny animals for forty years, the book brings together several studies that conclude that bees are capable of displaying emotions typically associated with mammals, such as Optimism, frustration and fear.
These insects can also recognize different human faces and even experience symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress. Furthermore, studies show that they process long-term memories during sleep and may eventually dream.
Although their brains are incredibly small – only 1 million neurons compared to 100 billion humans – bees have remarkable abilities to navigate, learn, communicate and remember.
From hive to pollination: discover 7 facts about bees
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The lifespan of bees depends a lot on their species, but in general, these insects live about 30 to 45 days in the working and harvest seasons. In the off-season, they can live up to five months.
According to André Ceserino, an agronomist who specializes in beekeeping, each hive can contain between 80,000 and 90,000 bees, including workers, drones, as well as a queen bee. According to him, this number may decrease in winter due to lack of food.
“The function of the queen is to maintain social order, to have the workers do the work inside and outside the hives, and also to lay eggs for the development of the colony,” says the researcher from Epagri (agricultural research and rural extension company from Santa Catarina)
Among the stinging bees Apis mellifera, Only workers sting humans. According to Zirino, the queens only use stingers to fight with other queens and to lay eggs.
Brazil has about 300 species of bees, most of them stinging, being the country with the greatest biodiversity of these insects. There are an estimated 20,000 species of bees in the world.
“The main job of bees is pollination, which in this case is called miltophili. More than 80% of tropical trees need cross-pollination by these insects to survive, that is, the pollen grains need to leave the flower of the tree and go to another flower for that plant to turn into fruit ”, the expert highlights
Beekeeping is the activity of creating stinging bees, while melon farming is the production of stinging bees, known as melpoonines.
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