Research library ambrosia

"Bees of the World" is a curious book. It's a boring, super-scientific reference work of the kind found in research libraries (and perhaps research laboratories). It's the kind of book a budding professor of entomology consults when he wants to know the exact number of subgenuses of the genus Augochlorella, search for scientific papers on the subgenus Pereirapis, or contemplate why female bees of the subgenus Ceratalictus have a epistomal suture forming an obtuse paraocular lobe and a basitibial plate poorly defined on the anterior edge. Well, you get the picture.

Despite, "Bees of the World" comes with several blurbs, just like books sold in the commercial market. Apparently, the work is an "instant classic", "ambrosia" and "magnificent". Closer to the truth is the blurb from Southeast Naturalist, which calls it "this definitive reference" and a "useful guide for entomologists". No doubt!

Humorously, the Western honeybee is a detail in this mastodon encyclopaedia which presents 1,200 genera and subgenera. Of almost 1,000 pages of dense text, only two are devoted to Apini, the "tribe" of the true honeybees. Killer bees aren't even mentioned.

I'm not sure how to rate this instant classic, but in the end I give it three stars. Michener's ambrosia is clearly off limits for the general reader. Please don't confuse this book with the more popularized book by Christopher O'Toole and Anthony Raw, somewhat confusingly also titled "Bees of the World".