Apiculture and honey bee species Rearing of honey bees on a commercial scale for crop pollination and production of honey is called apiculture. There are 10 species of honey bees namely Apis dorsata, A. florae, A. cerana, A. koschevnikovi, A. nigrocincta, A. mellifera, A. andreniformis, A. armbrusteri, A. lithohermaea and A. nearctica. Among the species giant honey bee A. dorsata, little honeybee A. florae, Asian honey bee A. cerana, and Western honey bee A. mellifera are well known (Bandgar et al. 2018). The Western honey bee species is mostly domesticated and widely used for production of honey and simultaneously crop pollination. A. armbrusteri, A. lithohermaea and A. nearctica have gone extinct. Impact of honey bee pollination on crop In the world, 30 % human diet is directly or indirectly dependent on bee pollination, and many farmers in the globe rely on managed bee pollination (Hoopingarner and Waller 1992, Amin et al. 2012). In addition, many forages for cattle are grown from seeds of insectpollinated plants and bees contribute 70-80% pollination among the insects. In 146 countries of the world, 90% food comes from 115 crop species of which 71 are pollinated by bees (Amin et al. 2012). The total economic value of insect pollination in the globe amounted to $210 billion in 2005, which represented 9.5% of the total value of agricultural production used for human consumption (Allsopp et al. 2008). Through their pollination services and honey production, honey bees are estimated to be worth $15 billion to the US, $19 billion to the EU and over $69 billion to East Asia (Allsopp et al. 2008). Insect pollination is thought to be the main reproductive mechanism in 78% of temperate flowering plants, and is essential to maintain plant genetic diversity. Some crops such as blue berries and cherries are 90% dependent on honey bee pollination. Another crop namely almond depends entirely on insect pollination. There are 620,000 beekeepers in the EU, producing 220,000 tons of honey every year (Zoccali et al. 2017). Managed honey bee pollination exerted higher percentage of pod formation (12-28%), seed set (21-35%) and seed weight (9-40%) of different vegetable crops like cabbage, cauliflower, radish and lettuce. Installing honey bee colonies increase yield up to 12-78% in different fruits, oil seeds and cash crops. The great value of bees as pollinator has been known to farmers in Bangladesh for many years, but this knowledge is not widely appreciated and practiced. The value of bee pollination in Western Europe is 30-50 times higher than the value of honey and wax (Vinod et al. 2016). In Africa, bee pollination is 100 times higher than the value of harvested honey, depending on the type of crops (Vinod et al. 2016). However, there is no comprehensive study so far in Bangladesh regarding the value of bee pollination on various agricultural crop species. The attributed honeybee pollination increased yield and quality of crops US$14.6 billion in the US in the year 2000 (Alemberhe and Gebremeskel 2016). In Western Cape (South Africa), honey bee pollinated deciduous fruit industry generates one billion per year and creates job opportunities for 80,000 people (Alemberhe and Gebremeskel 2016). Crops that get benefit out of honey bee pollination Honey bee workers forage from flower to flower and they travel incredible distances to collect pollen and nectar. Their foraging activity insures pollination of the following plants and thus increases fruit size at yield, hastens maturity and produces a more symmetrical fruit shape. Various crops such as vegetables- cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprout, Chinese cabbage, carrot, cucumber, pumpkin, gourd, squash, radish, okra, turnip, canola, peas and beans; fruits- mango, litchi, citrus, papaya, strawberry, melon, almond, apple, apricot and peach; oil seed crops- mustard, sunflower, niger, rape seed and safflower; spices- onion, coriander and chili; foragelucerne, clover; and cash crop like cotton get benefit out of honey bee pollination (Abrol 2011).