Order Hymenoptera: honey bees
Hymenoptera include honey bees, wasps, bumblebees and ants. A honey bee colony has one queen, thousands (10,000 to 100,000) of workers and hundreds of drones. Workers are undeveloped females: they clean and guard the hive, feed larvae, collect nectar and pollen and build six-sided cells of wax. Their mouthparts are chewing-sucking, their hind legs have a pollen basket, and their eyes see ultraviolet light. The queen and drones are fed mainly by the workers. Nectar becomes honey in the cells. A fertilised egg gives a worker, an unfertilised one a drone. A new colony forms by swarming: the old queen leaves with a group of workers and settles in another box. Bees tell others where flowers with nectar are by dance movements (the “bee language”). Bees pollinate plants and provide honey and wax. A worker bee that stings a person leaves its sting in the skin and dies. Ants also live in colonies; most are useful (the wood ant destroys pests).
Make a hive from paper six-sided cells and write the roles of queen, worker and drone. Safety: do not approach hives or wild bees, do not swat or catch them; only adults work with a beekeeper; if stung tell an adult – allergy can be dangerous.