Click Here for More Images from iStock
-
15% off with coupon 15FREEIMAGES
Free Images: "bestof:honey bees bees grass lawn close-up many hive insects"
Load More
Terms of Use
Search of the Day
![A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia.[1][2] After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America (early 16th century), North America (early 17th century), and Australia (early 19th century).[1] \nHoney bees are known for their construction of perennial colonial nests from wax, the large size of their colonies, and surplus production and storage of honey, distinguishing their hives as a prized foraging target of many animals, including honey badgers, bears and human hunter-gatherers. Only 8 surviving species of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 43 subspecies, though historically 7 to 11 species are recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. \nThe best known honey bee is the western honey bee, (Apis mellifera), which was domesticated for honey production and crop pollination. Modern humans also use beeswax in making candles, soap, lip balms and various cosmetics, as a lubricant and in mould-making using the lost wax process (source Wikipedia). \n\nThis swarm was photographed in front of my house in a cultivated Prune in Almere in the begin of July 2024.](https://media.istockphoto.com/id/2167919596/photo/honey-bee-swarm.jpg?b=1&s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=EHgBHYiKctEfIW61tPRuzzlAmd5kzxVONBSGGDUMpG4=)
