antarctica
Honeybees are one of the most well-known insects on the planet. Bees are naturalized on every continent except Antarctica. Honeybees have a highly developed social structure and depend on their community, or colony, for survival, with a colony containing up to 20,000 bees. When bees search plants for nectar, pollen sticks to the fuzzy hairs that cover their hind legs. At the next flower, some of the pollen rubs off and fertilizes that flower. In this way, bees help improve fruit production. Bees pollinate an estimated 130 different varieties of fruit, flowers, nuts and vegetables in the United States alone. Farmers obviously depend on bees to pollinate crops, such as fruit and nuts, but in recent years thousands of bee colonies have disappeared. This could be a devastating issue for farmers. Can anything be done? Meet two Northern California researchers looking for ways to make sure we always have bees to pollinate crops at http://www. kqed. org/quest/television/better-bees-super-bee-and-wild-bee .