If you see an insect in your garden flying from flower to flower on a beautiful summer day, chances are that it is a bee.  But it could also be a wasp or a bumblebee! What the difference is? All three of them are listed below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honeybee Orange with a black stripe on their abdomen and lots of hair on their legs. Live with about 50,000 in one hive. They are about 1.5cm long and are of slender build. Bees eat honey and pollen.

 

 

 

 

Wasp Look quite similar to the honeybee, but have less hair on their legs. They are also a bit bigger.  They live with several thousands in a nest under the ground.  They eat small insects, suck nectar from flowers and sometimes steal honey from bees.

 

 

 

 

Bumblebee Are a bit larger than bees, thick and bulky, with lots of hair everywhere and a couple of stripes on their abdomen. Bumblebees make a nice buzzing sound and live with only a couple of dozens in old mouse nests under the ground or in old bird’s nests in the trees.  They eat pollen and suck nectar from flowers.

 

 

The bee, the wasp and the bumblebee are all insects.  All three are useful for pollination in nature. Each species always has a queen, female workers and male drones.

 

Below you can see a picture of the body of a honeybee.

 

Like the bodies of the bumblebee and the wasp, it consists of 3 parts: a head, a thorax and an abdomen.  

 

The head features 2 antennae with which they can feel, smell and taste.

 

They also have 2 large compound eyes, with which they can look in all directions at the same time.  

 

They furthermore have a long, hollow kind of tongue, with which they suck the nectar.

 

The thorax has 2x3 legs and 2x2 wings.

 

The abdomen features a sting which they can use to defend themselves.