ABSTRACT
Bees and flowering plants engage in a mutual exchange: bees pollinate flowers while the plants provide nectar, pollen, and other rewards to the bees. The relationship between bees and plants is not always harmonious: bees can be overly demanding and plants can be stingy with their rewards. Bee pollination is vital to agriculture: Bee-pollinated plants supply much of our nutritional needs. Moreover, bee pollination often improves the quality of crops (like strawberries) that do not strictly require pollination. We explore the evolutionary origins of bees and bee diversity. Although honey bees have an outsized role in pollination, they are unusual bees. We consider some of the genetic oddities of bees, including how their unusual mode of sex determination may have fostered eusociality in bees. We consider threats to bees, focusing on pesticides and pathogens. Finally, we consider two topics related to honey bees: the similarities between human and honey bee decision making and how to best raise bees in keeping with evolutionary principles and the natural history of honey bees.
