Bees: A Natural History

Bees: A Natural History

ReviewThis volume provides an enjoyable survey of the world's bees and their relationships with plants, predators, and humans. It is aimed at general readers... It is generously illustrated with extraordinary, high-quality, color photographs by several photographers, and the layout is attractive... Although the book has a honey bee on the cover and honey bees receive plenty of attention in the sections on social bees and bee-human relations--one of its primary goals is to introduce readers to the world's wild bees, most of which are solitary. The volume begins with chapters on the biology of bees and an overview of the world's bee families. The next section covers bees as pollinators, first explaining the basics of pollination and then devoting two chapters to some of the "greatest hits" of pollination ecology, such as the bizarre-looking Rediviva bees of South Mrica, with their elongate front legs adapted for extracting oil from the floral spurs of their host plants. An additional chapter deals with the many parasites that exploit the protein-rich provisions in bee nests. The concluding section addresses the relationship between bees and humans, starting with Paleolithic honey-gatherers and continuing through modern applications of honey bee products (many of them entertainingly debunked by O'Toole) in medicine and cosmetics. The book describes recent advances in bee conservation and management and ends with a strong argument for why more of us should learn about and advocate for wild bees... The photographs alone are worth the price of admission, and the text provides a good introduction to bee ecology and diversity. -- Jessica Forrest - Quarterly Reivew of Biology Published On: 2015-09-15It feels good to hold a well-crafted book in your hands, but Bees is not just a pretty frontispiece. Large, superb, close-up photos punctuate a fairly in-depth examination of the world's bees, both solitary and social, stinging, honey-storing or not. There are more than 20,000 identified species of bees (significantly more than birds and mammals combined), the authors have selected representative species and genera to ensure the book doesn't go on for too long. We learn that there is far more to bees than honey, and we must pay attention, as one-third of our food is bee-dependent... The book also contains pertinent information on diversity among bees, including grades of sociality; the role of males in bee society; why bees are good pollinators; and the role of bees in human lives. We discover that many species are stressed, largely through habitat loss, and what we can do in our own back yards to give bees a helping hand. This is an excellent resource for schools and nature centres, and the clear prose and large text will be readable for advanced middle school students and up. -- Alan Crook - Green Teacher Published On: 2014-04-01This beautifully illustrated book provides the reader with an excellent overview of the 18,000 or so recognised species of bee found across the globe... The book is easy to read and a must for any serious student of the Hymenoptera. The author has been in the forefront of bee conservation in the UK for many years and here offers further good advice on how to reverse the declines recorded for many British species. -- John Badmin - British Journal of Entomology and Natural History Published On: 2014-10-01This book will be of interest to a wide audience. - Bees for Development Journal Published On: 2014-11-01It is only correct to comment on the extraordinarily high quality of the photographs throughout and the great skill employed by the many photographers... This book will appeal to general naturalists and wildlife photographers as well as bee specialists and all-round entomologists too. -- Stuart Roberts - Bees, Wasps and Ants Society Published On: 2013-11-01I will never be able to look at a bee the same again! What an amazing book with 240 pages that draw the reader in! This oversize book (the better t