1.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
2.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
3.
Arthropod
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An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs
4.
Hymenoptera
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Hymenoptera is the third-largest order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 species are recognized, with many more remaining to be described, females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or otherwise inaccessible places. The ovipositor is modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism —that is, they have a larval stage. The name Hymenoptera refers to the wings of the insects, all references agree that the derivation involves the Ancient Greek πτερόν for wing. The Ancient Greek ὑμήν for membrane provides an etymology for the term because this order like several others has membranous wings. However, a key characteristic of this order is that the wings are connected to the fore wings by a series of hooks. Thus, another plausible etymology involves Hymen, the Ancient Greek god of marriage, Hymenoptera originated in the Triassic, with the oldest fossils belonging to the family Xyelidae. Social hymenopterans appeared during the Cretaceous, the evolution of this group has been intensively studied by Alex Rasnitsyn, Michael S. Engel, G. Dlussky, and others. This clade has been studied by examining the mitochondrial DNA, although this study was unable to resolve all the ambiguities in this clade, some relationships could be established. The Aculeata, Ichneumonomorpha, and Proctotrupomorpha were monophyletic, the Megalyroidea and Trigonalyoidea are sister clades as are the Chalcidoidea+Diaprioidea. The Cynipoidea was generally recovered as the group to Chalcidoidea and Diaprioidea which are each others closest relations. The cladogram is based on Schulmeister 2003, hymenopterans range in size from very small to large insects, and usually have two pairs of wings. Their mouthparts are adapted for chewing, with well-developed mandibles, many species have further developed the mouthparts into a lengthy proboscis, with which they can drink liquids, such as nectar. They have large eyes, and typically three simple eyes. The forward margin of the hind wing bears a number of hooked bristles, or hamuli, the smaller species may have only two or three hamuli on each side, but the largest wasps may have a considerable number, keeping the wings gripped together especially tightly. Hymenopteran wings have relatively few veins compared with other insects. In the more ancestral hymenopterans, the ovipositor is blade-like, and has evolved for slicing plant tissues, in the majority, however, it is modified for piercing, and, in some cases, is several times the length of the body
5.
Apidae
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Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees. Many are valuable pollinators in natural habitats and for agricultural crops, in addition to its historical classification, the family Apidae presently includes all the genera formerly placed in the families Anthophoridae and Ctenoplectridae. Although the most visible members of Apidae are social, the vast majority of bees are solitary. Apinae, honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, orchid bees, digger bees, the subfamily Apinae contains a diversity of 15 tribe lineages, the majority of which are solitary and whose nests are simple burrows in the soil. However, honey bees, stingless bees, and bumblebees are eusocial or colonial and they are sometimes believed to have each developed this independently, and show notable differences in such characteristics as communication between workers and methods of nest construction. Some tribe lineages, such as the Allodapini, contain eusocial species, most members of this subfamily make nests in plant stems or wood. Tribes include, Allodapini Ceratinini Manueliini Xylocopini Bee List of crop plants pollinated by bees Arnett, CRC Press, Boca Ratón, Londres, New York, Washington, D. C. ISBN 0-8493-0212-9 Borror, D. J. DeLong, D. M. Triplehorn, an introduction to the study of insects. Bees of the Eastern United States, Volumen II, no.152,557 p. BugGuide. Net, Family Apidae—Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble, and Honey Bees, and other bees. BugGuide. net, Native Bees of North America
6.
Northeast Region, Brazil
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The Northeast Region of Brazil is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. For the socio-geographic area see Nordeste, of Brazils twenty-six states, it comprises nine, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, along with the Fernando de Noronha archipelago. Chiefly known as Nordeste in Brazil, this region was the first to be discovered and colonized by the Portuguese and other European peoples, Nordestes dialects and rich culture, including its folklore, cuisines, music and literature, became the most easily distinguishable across the country. To this day, Nordeste is widely recognized for its history and culture, Nordeste stretches from the Atlantic seaboard in the northeast and southeast, northwest and west to the Amazon Basin and south through the Espinhaço highlands in southern Bahia. It encloses the São Francisco River and drainage basin, which were instrumental in the exploration, settlement, the region lies entirely within the earths tropical zone and encompasses Caatinga, Atlantic Forest and part of the Cerrado ecoregions. The climate is hot and semi-arid, varying from xeric in Caatinga, to mesic in Cerrado and hydric in the Atlantic Forest. The Northeast Region represents 18% of Brazilian territory, has a population of 53.6 million people, 28% of the population of the country. Nearly three quarters of the live in urban areas clustered along the Atlantic coast and about 15 million people live in the hinterland. It is a region, 58% of the population lives in poverty. Nordeste has nine international airports, and the region has the second largest number of passengers in Brazil, the Zona da Mata comprises the rainsforest zones of Nordeste in the humid eastern coast, where the regions largest capital cities are also located. The forest area was larger before suffering from centuries of deforestation and exploration. For many years, sugar cultivation in this region was the mainstay of Brazils economy. The sugar cane is cultivated on large estates and the owners of these had, since the escarpment does not generate any further rainfall on its slopes from the lifting of the trade winds, annual rainfall decreases steadily inland. After a relatively short distance, there is no longer enough rainfall to tropical rainforest. This transitional zone is known as the agreste and because it is located on the escarpment, was not generally used whilst flatter land was abundant. In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia, in Brazil, the geographical term referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century. Geographically, the Sertão consists mainly of low uplands that form part of the Brazilian Highlands, in the north, the Sertão extends to the northern coastal plains of Rio Grande do Norte state, whilst in the south it fades out in the northern fringe of Minas Gerais. Because the Sertão lies close to the equator, temperatures remain nearly uniform throughout the year and are typically tropical, however, the sertão is distinctive in its low rainfall compared to other areas of Brazil
7.
Stingless bee
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Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees, comprising the tribe Meliponini. They belong in the family Apidae, and are related to common honey bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees. Meliponines have stingers, but they are reduced and cannot be used for defense. Meliponines are not the type of stingless bee, all male bees and many female bees of several other families, such as Andrenidae. Stingless bees can be found in most tropical or subtropical regions of the world, such as Australia, Africa, Southeast Asia, and tropical America. The majority of native eusocial bees of Central and South America are stingless bees and they are also quite diverse in Africa, including Madagascar, and are farmed there also, meliponine honey is prized as a medicine in many African communities, as well as in South America. Being tropical, stingless bees are active all year round, although they are active in cooler weather. Unlike other eusocial bees, they do not sting, but will defend by biting if their nest is disturbed, in addition, a few have mandibular secretions that cause painful blisters. Despite their lack of a sting, stingless bees, being eusocial, many beekeepers keep the bees in their original log hive or transfer them to a wooden box, as this makes it easier to control the hive. Some beekeepers put them in bamboos, flowerpots, coconut shells, and other recycling containers such as a jug, a broken guitar. The bees store pollen and honey in large, egg-shaped pots made of beeswax mixed with various types of plant resin and these pots are often arranged around a central set of horizontal brood combs, wherein the larvae are housed. When the young bees emerge from their cells, they tend to initially remain inside the hive. As workers age, they become guards or foragers, unlike the larvae of honey bees and many social wasps, meliponine larvae are not actively fed by adults. Pollen and nectar are placed in a cell, within which an egg is laid, at any one time, hives can contain 300–80,000 workers, depending on species. In a simplified sense, the sex of each bee depends on the number of chromosomes it receives, female bees have two sets of chromosomes —one set from the queen and another from one of the male bees or drones. Drones have only one set of chromosomes, and are the result of unfertilized eggs, also a genetic component occurs, however, and as much as 25% of the female brood may be queens. When the new queens emerge, they leave to mate. New nests are not established by swarms, but by a procession of workers that gradually construct a new nest at a secondary location
8.
Behavioral ecology
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Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures. If an organism has a trait which provides them with an advantage in its environment. Adaptive significance therefore refers to the qualities, any given modified trait conveys. e. Individuals are always in competition with others for limited resources, including food, territories, conflict will occur between predators and prey, between rivals for mates, between siblings, mates, and even between parents and their offspring. The value of a social behavior depends in part on the behavior of an animals neighbors. For example, the more likely a male is to back down from a threat. The more likely, however, that a rival will attack if threatened, when a population exhibits a number of interacting social behaviors such as this, it can evolve a stable pattern of behaviors known as an evolutionarily stable strategy. In other words, at equilibrium every player should play the best strategic response to each other, when the game is two player and symmetric each player should play the strategy which is the best response to itself. Therefore, the ESS is considered to be the end point subsequent to the interactions. Behavioral evolution is therefore influenced by both the environment and interactions between other individuals. An example of how changes in geography can make a strategy susceptible to alternative strategies is the parasitization of the African honey bee, the term economic defendability was first introduced by Jerram Brown in 1964. Economic defendability states that defense of a resource have costs, such as energy expenditure or risk of injury, territorial behavior arises when benefits are greater than the costs. Studies of the golden-winged sunbird have validated the concept of economic defendability, when resources are at low density, the gains from excluding others may not be sufficient to pay for the cost of territorial defense. In contrast, when availability is high, there may be so many intruders that the defender would have no time to make use of the resources made available by defense. Sometimes the economics of resource competition favors shared defense, an example is the feeding territories of the white wagtail. The white wagtails feed on insects washed up by the river onto the bank, if any intruders harvested their territory then the prey would quickly become depleted, but sometimes territory owners tolerate a second bird, known as a satellite. The two sharers would then move out of phase with one another, resulting in decreased feeding rate but also increased defense, one of the major models used to predict the distribution of competing individuals amongst resource patches is the ideal free distribution model. Within this model, resource patches can be of variable quality, an experiment by Manfred Malinski in 1979 demonstrated that feeding behavior in three-spined sticklebacks follows an ideal free distribution
9.
Caatinga
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Caatinga is a type of desert vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name Caatinga is a Tupi word meaning white forest or white vegetation, Caatinga is a xeric shrubland and thorn forest, which consists primarily of small, thorny trees that shed their leaves seasonally. Cacti, thick-stemmed plants, thorny brush, and arid-adapted grasses make up the ground layer, many annual plants grow, flower, and die during the brief rainy season. Caatinga falls entirely within earths Tropical zone and is one of 6 major ecoregions of Brazil, including the Amazon Basin, Pantanal, Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest and it covers 850,000 km², nearly 10% of Brazils territory. It is home to 26 million people and more than 2000 species of plants, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds. Caatinga covers the portion of northeastern Brazil bordering the Atlantic seaboard. The Caatinga includes several enclaves of humid tropical forest, known as the Caatinga enclaves moist forests, the Caatinga comprises 850,000 km², about 10% of the surface area of Brazil. By comparison, it is nine times the surface area of Portugal, whence came its early European settlers. The Caatinga has only two distinguishable seasons and these are the winter, when it is very hot and dry, and the summer when it is hot and rainy. During the dry periods there is no foliage or undergrowth. The vegetation is dry and the roots begin to protrude through the surface of the stony soil. They do this in order to water before it is evaporated. All leaves fall off the trees to reduce transpiration, thus lessening the amount of water that is lost in the dry season, during the peak periods of drought the Caatingas soil can reach temperatures of up to 60 °C. With all the foliage and undergrowth dead during the periods and all the trees having no leaves the Caatinga has a yellow-grey. The Caatinga is very dry place in Brazil, with frequent droughts, the drought usually ends in December or January, when the rainy season starts. Immediately after the first rains, the grey, desert-like landscape starts to transform, small plants start growing in the now moist soil and trees grow back their leaves. At this time, the rivers that were dry during the past 6 or 7 months, start to fill up. The Caatinga is poorly represented in the Brazilian Conservation Area network, with only 1% in Integral Protection Conservation Areas, Caatinga harbors a unique biota, with thousands of endemic species
10.
Deforestation
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Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, the most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 30% of Earths land surface is covered by forests, Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons, trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and it has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also used in war to deprive the enemy of cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, as of 2005, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland, disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human-induced, is an ongoing issue, Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the live in tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2012,2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down, as a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation, commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%, logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%. Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation, some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest. One study found that population increases due to fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases. Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions, the distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation. Globalization is often viewed as another cause of deforestation, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization have promoted localized forest recovery. The degradation of forest ecosystems has also traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years, Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography. Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect
11.
Parasitism
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In biology/ecology, parasitism is a non-mutual relationship between species, where one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred primarily to organisms visible to the naked eye, Parasites can be microparasites, which are typically smaller, such as protozoa, viruses, and bacteria. Examples of parasites include the plants mistletoe and cuscuta, and animals such as hookworms, unlike predators, parasites typically do not kill their host, are generally much smaller than their host, and will often live in or on their host for an extended period. Both are special cases of consumer-resource interactions, Parasites show a high degree of specialization, and reproduce at a faster rate than their hosts. Classic examples of parasitism include interactions between vertebrate hosts and tapeworms, flukes, the Plasmodium species, and fleas, parasitism differs from the parasitoid relationship in that parasitoids generally kill their hosts. Parasites reduce host biological fitness by general or specialized pathology, such as parasitic castration and impairment of secondary sex characteristics, Parasites increase their own fitness by exploiting hosts for resources necessary for their survival, e. g. food, water, heat, habitat, and transmission. Although parasitism applies unambiguously to many cases, it is part of a continuum of types of interactions between species, rather than an exclusive category, in many cases, it is difficult to demonstrate harm to the host. In others, there may be no apparent specialization on the part of the parasite, coined in English in 1611, the word parasitism comes from the Greek παρά + σιτισμός feeding, fattening. Parasites are classified based on their interactions with their hosts and on their life cycles, an obligate parasite is totally dependent on the host to complete its life cycle, while a facultative parasite is not. A direct parasite has one host while an indirect parasite has multiple hosts. For indirect parasites, there always be a definitive host. Parasites that live on the outside of the host, either on the skin or the outgrowths of the skin, are called ectoparasites and those that live inside the host are called endoparasites. Endoparasites can exist in one of two forms, intercellular parasites or intracellular parasites, intracellular parasites, such as protozoa, bacteria or viruses, tend to rely on a third organism, which is generally known as the carrier or vector. The vector does the job of transmitting them to the host, an example of this interaction is the transmission of malaria, caused by a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium, to humans by the bite of an anopheline mosquito. Those parasites living in a position, being half-ectoparasites and half-endoparasites, are called mesoparasites. An epiparasite is one that feeds on another parasite and this relationship is also sometimes referred to as hyperparasitism, exemplified by a protozoan living in the digestive tract of a flea living on a dog. Social parasites take advantage of interactions between members of social organisms such as ants, termites, and bumblebees, an extreme example of social parasitism is the ant species of Tetramorium inquilinum of the Alps, which spend their whole lives on the back of Tetramorium host ants. With tiny and deprecated bodies they have evolved for one single task, if they fall off, they most likely would not have the strength to climb back on top of another ant, and eventually they will die
12.
Honey
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Honey /ˈhʌni/ is a sugary food substance produced and stored by certain social hymenopteran insects. It is produced from the secretions of plants or insects, such as floral nectar or aphid honeydew, through regurgitation, enzymatic activity. The variety of honey produced by bees is the most well-known, due to its worldwide commercial production. Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, and has about the relative sweetness as granulated sugar. It has attractive properties for baking and a distinctive flavor that leads some people to prefer it to sugar. Most microorganisms do not grow in honey, so sealed honey does not spoil, however, honey sometimes contains dormant endospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be dangerous to babies, as it may result in botulism. People who have an immune system should not eat honey because of the risk of bacterial or fungal infection. Although some evidence indicates honey may be effective in treating diseases and other conditions, such as wounds and burns. Providing 64 calories in a serving of one tablespoon equivalent to 1272 kj per 100 g. Honey is generally safe, but may have various, potential adverse effects or interactions with excessive consumption, existing disease conditions, or drugs. Honey use and production have a long and varied history as an ancient activity, depicted in Valencia, in cold weather or when other food sources are scarce, adult and larval bees use stored honey as food. By contriving for bee swarms to nest in man-made hives, people have been able to semidomesticate the insects, Bee digestive enzymes - invertase, amylase, and diastase - and gastric acid hydrolyze sucrose to a mixture of glucose and fructose. The bees work together as a group with the regurgitation and digestion for as long as 20 minutes until the product reaches storage quality. It is then placed in honeycomb cells left unsealed while still high in content and natural yeasts. The bees then cap the cells with wax to seal them, as removed from the hive by a beekeeper, honey has a long shelf life and will not ferment if properly sealed. Another source of honey is from a number of species, such as the wasps Brachygastra lecheguana and Brachygastra mellifica. These species are known to feed on nectar and produce honey, Honey is collected from wild bee colonies, or from domesticated beehives. The honey is stored in honeycombs, wild bee nests are sometimes located by following a honeyguide bird
