bee |
bell |
top 10 words in brain distribution (in article): species plant fruit food seed bird produce egg female male |
top 10 words in brain distribution (in article): church time form century death iron world word life ancient |
top 10 words in brain distribution (not in article): animal grow tree leaf breed sugar fish water hunt cat |
top 10 words in brain distribution (not in article): love sexual god woman people fuel bishop religion blade pyramid |
times more probable under bee 30 20 10 6 4 2.5 1.25 1 1.25 2.5 4 6 10 20 30 times more probable under bell (words not in the model) | |
Bees'" are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily "'Apoidea'", presently classified by the unranked taxon name "'Anthophila'". There are nearly 20,000 known species of bee, in nine recognized families, though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. Introduction. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source, and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae. Bees have a long proboscis (a complex "tongue") that enables them to obtain the nectar from flowers. They have antennae almost universally made up of 13 segments in males and 12 in females, as is typical for the superfamily. Bees all have two pairs of wings, the hind pair being the smaller of the two; in a very few species, one sex or caste has relatively short wings that make flight difficult or impossible, but none is wingless. The smallest bee is "Trigona minima", a stingless bee whose workers are about 2.1 mm (5 64") long. The largest bee in the world is "Megachile pluto", a leafcutter bee whose females can attain a length of 39 mm (1.5"). Members of the family Halictidae, or sweat bees, are the most common type of bee in the Northern Hemisphere, though they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. The best-known bee species is the European honey bee, which, as its name suggests, produces honey, as do a few other types of bee. Human management of this species is known as beekeeping or apiculture. Bees are the favorite meal of "Merops apiaster", the bee-eater bird. Other common predators are kingbirds, mockingbirds, bee wolves, and dragonflies. Pollination. Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in ecosystems that contain flowering plants. Bees either focus on gathering nectar or on gathering pollen depending on demand, especially in social species. Bees gathering nectar may accomplish pollination, but bees that are deliberately gathering pollen are more efficient pollinators. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated European honey bee. Contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many countries. Monoculture and the massive decline of many bee species (both wild and domesticated) have increasingly caused honey bee keepers to become migratory so that bees can be concentrated in seasonally-varying high-demand areas of pollination. Most bees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge, which aids in the adherence of pollen. Female bees periodically stop foraging and groom themselves to pack the pollen into the scopa, which is on the legs in most bees, and on the ventral abdomen on others, and modified into specialized pollen baskets on the legs of honey bees and their relatives. Many bees are opportunistic foragers, and will gather pollen from a variety of plants, while others are oligolectic, gathering pollen from only one or a few types of plant. A small number of plants produce nutritious floral oils rather than pollen, which are gathered and used by oligolectic bees. One small subgroup of stingless bees, called "vulture bees," is specialized to feed on carrion, and these are the only bees that do not use plant products as food. Pollen and nectar are usually combined together to form a "provision mass", which is often soupy, but can be firm. It is formed into various shapes (typically spheroid), and stored in a small chamber (a "cell"), with the egg deposited on the mass. The cell is typically sealed after the egg is laid, and the adult and larva never interact directly (a system called "mass provisioning"). Visiting flowers can be a dangerous occupation. Many assassin bugs and crab spiders hide in flowers to capture unwary bees. Other bees are lost to birds in flight. Insecticides used on blooming plants kill many bees, both by direct poisoning and by contamination of their food supply. A honey bee queen may lay 2000 eggs per day during spring buildup, but she also must lay 1000 to 1500 eggs per day during the foraging season, mostly to replace daily casualties, most of which are workers dying of old age. Among solitary and primitively social bees, however, lifetime reproduction is among the lowest of all insects, as it is common for females of such species to produce fewer than 25 offspring. The population value of bees depends partly on the individual efficiency of the bees, but also on the population itself. Thus, while bumblebees have been found to be about ten times more efficient pollinators on cucurbits, the total efficiency of a colony of honey bees is much greater, due to greater numbers. Likewise, during early spring orchard blossoms, bumblebee populations are limited to only a few queens, and thus are not significant pollinators of early fruit. Depopulation. Recently, managed populations of European honey bees have experienced substantial declines. This has prompted investigations into the phenomenon amidst great concern over the nature and extent of the losses. One aspect of the problem is believed to be "Colony Collapse Disorder" but many of the losses outside the US are attributed to other causes. Pesticides used to treat seeds, such as Clothianidin and Imidacloprid, may also negatively impact honey bee populations. Other species of bees such as mason bees are increasingly cultured and used to meet the agricultural pollination need. Most native pollinators are solitary bees, which often survive in refuge in wild areas away from agricultural spraying, but may still be poisoned in massive spray programs for mosquitoes, gypsy moths, or other insect pests. Evolution. Bees, like ants, are a specialized form of wasp. The ancestors of bees were wasps in the family Crabronidae, and therefore predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects that were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario has also occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the group known as "pollen wasps" also evolved from predatory ancestors. Up until recently the oldest non-compression bee fossil had been "Cretotrigona prisca" in New Jersey amber and of Cretaceous age, a meliponine. A recently reported bee fossil, of the genus "Melittosphex", is considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees", and dates from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya). Derived features of its morphology ("apomorphies") place it clearly within the bees, but it retains two unmodified ancestral traits ("plesiomorphies") of the legs (two mid-tibial spurs, and a slender hind basitarsus), indicative of its transitional status. The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before bees first appeared. The novelty is that bees are "specialized" as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are generally more efficient at the task than beetles, flies, butterflies, pollen wasps, or any other pollinating insect. The appearance of such floral specialists is believed to have driven the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, the bees themselves. Among living bee groups, the Dasypodaidae are now considered to be the most "primitive", and sister taxon to the remainder of the bees, contrary to earlier hypotheses that the "short-tongued" bee family Colletidae was the basal group of bees; the short, wasp-like mouthparts of colletids are the result of convergent evolution, rather than indicative of a plesiomorphic condition. Eusocial and semisocial bees. Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. The most advanced of these are eusocial colonies found among the honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees. Sociality, of several different types, is believed to have evolved separately many times within the bees. In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a division of labor within the group, then they are considered semisocial. If, in addition to a division of labor, the group consists of a mother and her daughters, then the group is called eusocial. The mother is considered the "queen" and the daughters are "workers". These castes may be purely behavioral alternatives, in which case the system is considered "primitively eusocial" (similar to many paper wasps), and if the castes are morphologically discrete, then the system is "highly eusocial". There are many more species of primitively eusocial bees than highly eusocial bees, but they have rarely been studied. The biology of most such species is almost completely unknown. The vast majority are in the family Halictidae, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. The only physical difference between queens and workers is average size, if they differ at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females (future queens, or "gynes") hibernate (called diapause). A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds. The orchid bees include a number of | A bell'" is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck. The striking implement can be a tongue suspended within the bell, known as a "clapper", a small, free sphere enclosed within the body of the bell, or a separate mallet. Bells are usually made of cast metal, but small bells can also be made from ceramic or glass. Bells can be of all sizes: from tiny dress accessories to church bells weighing many tons. Church and temple bells. In the Western world, its most classical form is a church bell or town bell, which is hung within a tower and sounded by having the entire bell swung by ropes, whereupon an internal hinged clapper strikes the body of the bell (called a free-swinging bell). A set of bells, hung in a circle for change ringing, is known as a ring of bells. In the Eastern world, the traditional forms of bells are temple and palace bells, small ones being rung by a sharp rap with a stick, and very large ones rung by a blow from the outside by a large swinging beam. The striking technique is employed worldwide for some of the largest tower-borne bells, because swinging the bells themselves could damage their towers. In the Roman Catholic Church and among some High Lutherans and Anglicans, small hand-held bells, called Sanctus or sacring bells, are often rung by a server at Mass when the priest holds high up first the host, and then the chalice immediately after he has said the words of consecration over them (the moment known as the Elevation). This serves to indicate to the congregation that the bread and wine have just been transformed into the body and blood of Christ (see transubstantiation), or, in the alternative Reformation teaching, that Christ is now bodily present in the elements, and that what the priest is holding up for them to look at is Christ himself (see consubstantiation). Japanese religious bells. Japanese Shintoist and Buddhist bells are used in religious ceremonies. "Suzu", a homophone meaning both "cool and refreshing," are spherical bells which contain metal pellets that produce sound from the inside. The hemispherical bell is the "Kane" bell, which is struck on the outside. See also Kane (musical instrument). Buddhist bells. Buddhist bells are used in religious ceremonies. Bell construed as a cause for war. On January 15, 1602 ("Keichō 7"), a fire broke out at Hōkō-ji, Buddhist temple complex in Kyoto. The great image of the Buddha and the structure housing the statue, the "Daibutsu-den", were both consumed by the flames. In 1610, Toyotomi Hideyori decided to sponsor rebuilding the Hōkō-ji and he also decided to order a great bell cast in bronze. On August 24, 1614 ("Keichō 19"), the huge new bronze bell was cast successfully. Dedication ceremonies were scheduled, but at the last minute, Tokugawa Ieyasu forbade the ceremonies to take place because he construed inscriptions on the bell to have been a personal affront: This contrived dispute led to the, which was a series of battles between armies of the Tokugawa shogunate and the samurai of the Toyotomi clan. The siege lasted through 1615. It is conventionally divided into two stages: the Winter Campaign and the Summer Campaign. In the end, the total destruction of the Toyotomi eliminated the last major opposition to the shogunate which would come to dominate Japan for the next 250 years. Bellmaking. The process of casting bells is called bellmaking or bellfounding, and in Europe dates to the 4th or 5th century. The traditional metal for these bells is a bronze of about 23% tin. Known as "bell metal", this alloy is also the traditional alloy for the finest Turkish and Chinese cymbals. Other materials sometimes used for large bells include brass and iron. Bells are always cast mouth down. Bells are made to exact formulas, so that given the diameter it is possible to calculate every dimension, and its musical note, or tone. The frequency of a bell's note in Hz varies with the square of its thickness, and inversely with its diameter. Much experimentation has been devoted to determining the exact shape that will give the best tone. The thickness of a church bell at its thickest part, called the 'sound bow' is usually one thirteenth its diameter. If the bell is mounted as cast, it is called a "maiden bell" while "tuned bells" are worked after casting to produce a precise note. Bell towers. Bells are also associated with clocks, indicating the hour by ringing. Indeed, the word "clock" comes from the Latin word "cloca", meaning bell. Clock towers or bell towers can be heard over long distances which was especially important in the time when clocks were too expensive for widespread use. In the case of clock towers and grandfather clocks, a particular sequence of tones may be played to represent the hour. One common pattern is called the "Westminster Quarters," a sixteen-note pattern named after the Palace of Westminster which popularized it as the measure used by "Big Ben". Bells as musical instruments. Some bells are used as musical instruments, such as carillons, (clock) chimes, or ensembles of bell-players, called bell choirs, using hand-held bells of varying tones. A "ring of bells" is a set of 4 to twelve bells or more used in change ringing, a particular method of ringing bells in patterns. A peal in changing ringing may have bells playing for several hours, playing 5,000 or more patterns without a break or repetition.. Ancient Chinese bells. The ancient Chinese bronze chime bells called bianzhong or (鐘) are among the highest achievements of Chinese bronze casting technology. These chime bells were used as polyphonic musical instruments and some of these bells have been dated at between 2000 to 3600 years old. The secret of the design and the method of casting zhong bells, which was known only to the Chinese in antiquity, was lost in later generations. It was not fully rediscovered and understood until 1978, when a complete ceremonial set of 65 "zhong" bells was found in a near-perfect state of preservation during the excavation of the of Marquis Yi, who died ca. 430BCE. Yi was ruler of Zeng, one of the Warring States which at the time of his death was under control of the Chǔ state. This region is now part of the present-day Hubei province. Although tuned bells have been created and used for musical performance in many cultures, zhong are unique among all other types of cast bells in several respects. They have a lens-shaped (rather than circular) section and the bell mouth has a distinctive "cutaway" profile, and this special shape gives zhong bells the remarkable ability to produce, depending on where they are struck. The interval between these notes on each bell is either a major or minor third, equivalent to a distance of four or five notes on a piano.. The bells of Marquis Yi, which are still fully playable after almost 2500 years, cover a range of slightly less than five octaves but thanks to their twin-tone capability, the set can sound a complete 12-tone scale, predating the development of the European 12-tone system by some 2000 years, and can play melodies in diatonic and pentatonic scales These bells usually have inscriptions on them from which scholars used as references for studying ancient Chinese writings (also known as Bronzeware script). Another related ancient Chinese musical instrument is called qing (pinyin qing4) but it was made of stone instead of metal. Konguro'o. Konguro'o is a small bell, which as well as Djalaajyn firstly had the utilitarian purposes and only after artistic ones. Konguro'o sounded by the time of moving to the new places, being fastened to the horse harness it created very specific "smart" sound background. Konguro'o also hanged on the neck of leader goat, which leads the flock of sheep in some definite direction. That is why in folk memory almost magic sound of konguro'o was associated with nomadic mode of life. To make this instrument Kyrgyz foremen used cooper, bronze, iron and brass. They also decorated it with artistic carving and covered with silver. Sizes of the instruments might vary in considerable limits, what depended on its function. Every bell had its own timbre. Chimes. A variant on the bell is the tubular bell. Several of these metal tubes which are struck manually with hammers, form an instrument named "tubular bells" or "chimes". In the case of wind or aeolian chimes, the tubes are blown against one another by the wind. Farm bells. Whereas the church and temple bells called to mass or religious service, bells were used on farms for more secular signaling. The greater farms in Scandinavia usually had a small bell-tower resting on the top of the barn. The bell was used to call the workers from the field at the end of the day's work. In folk tradition, it is recorded that each church and possibly several farms had their specific rhymes connected to the sound of the specific bells. An example is the Pete Seeger song "The Bells of Rhymney". |