The human race maintains a peculiar love-hate relationship with this particular, extremely useful, insect group.
Bees, Ants and Wasps are well-represented in their Hymenoptera order as some 18,000 species are recognized in North America alone with a further 115,000 found worldwide. This order produces a variety of species types that make for a distinct love/hate relationship in the world of people - some are excellent at controlling pest populations while others provide a bounty of honey and wax sources for usable goods and still others can serve the medical and research communities with their fascinating ways. There are those, however, that are inherently more aggressive and will sting humans, sometimes generating allergic reactions, or build their colonies near or inside of homes. If these species rely on people food sources, they inevitably make their way into our food stores, eventually being labeled as 'pests'.
Bees remain an utterly important component of the ecosystem as their pollination habits affect some 50% to 80% of the world's food supply - that's an immense number to be sure, particularly as they directly support crop and fruit farming industries. However, colony numbers have increasingly dwindled with each passing year.
Why are Bees, Ants and Wasps grouped together on this page? Because they are scientifically categorized under the same Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order and Suborder and are very closely related to one another.
There are a total of [ 121 ] Bees, Ants, Wasps, & Similar in the InsectIdentification.org database. Always pay close attention to color variations and body shapes when trying to identify a species. To remove entries below, simply click on the 'X' in the red box of each respective insect.
