Entomophilous species frequently evolve mechanisms to make themselves more appealing to insects, e.g., brightly-colored or scented flowers, nectar, or appealing shapes and patterns. Pollen grains of entomophilous plants are generally larger than the fine pollens of anemophilous (wind-pollinated) plants. They usually are of more nutritional value to insects, which may use them for food and inadvertently spread them to other flowers.

Here the girls have all the room they need to come and go. This was just after I fully opened the entrance. While I had the hive open, I scraped all the burb comb off, added a green drone frame to keep the burr comb down to a minimum, and also put a honey super on to keep the girls busy. The bees are bringing in all sorts of pollen, so I know they’ll soon fill up the brood nest with honey. So ow they can go to work filling the honey super.

We are going to concentrate on the social bee Apis mellifera however, all bees have some things in common and we will look at those characteristics. At the same time we should be aware that the insect family is the largest in the animal world. They have been arranged in orders (large groups of insects with similar characteristics). One example is the butterfly order called Lepidoptera. They also visit flowers to gather pollen and nectar and pollinate just as bees but differ in other respects. Bees belong to the class Hymenoptera.