The Little Book of Bees

Rating:
Summary: Something to Buzz About
Review: Great things do, indeed, sometimes come in small packages, and The Little Book of Bees provides the proof.

Packed into a tightly written book of 150 small pages is a goldmine of information about bees. Despite the rather cute title (one of a series of similarly named books from Copernicus Books), this book is a serious look at the life of bees, written for the non-scientist.

The book opens with an overview of bees and their place in the animal kingdom and throughout earth's history and moves on to:

The bee as an insect, examining its anatomy and abilities
The social life of bees, looking at bees in larger social structures, family associations, within the colony and classification systems

The traits of bees

Solitary bees and their social development (or lack thereof)

Bumblebees and stingless bees

The types of bees and where they fit in, including a look at honeybee language, the development of new hives and sensory abilities.

At all times, the book is intelligently written, easily read by the layman while also offering serious bits of science to those who want to know more. Any reader can learn a lot from this book. For example, I never knew there was such a thing as a stingless bee. Sounds harmless, right? Ha! Here's what author Karl Weiss says about them:

Stingless bees are not defenseless, though....If a curious person comes too close to their nest, he can be badly injured. The disturbed bees hurl themselves at him and bite him in the skin and hair, holding on tightly. In addition, some species spray a sticky, acrid secretion from their mandibular glands into the bite wounds that can leave permanent scars. Thus, fire bees or hair-cutting bees are fitting names for these species."

Hmm, just want you want buzzing around your backyard.
The book contains numerous black-and-white illustrations showing bee anatomy, hive construction, nest development and honeycombs. While none of the illustrations are fancy or colorful, all are worth examination.

Weiss is an entomologist and the director of the Bavarian Beekeeping Institute at Erlangen, Germany. His co-author, entomologist Carlos H. Vergara, is from the Universidad de las Americas, in Puebla, Mexico.