Friday, May 29, 2020

Bees again

And more bees! These were foraging on a couple of comfrey plants on the hillside.

Comfrey; Symphytum originale.

Flower head with one bee. A female, because she's carrying those pollen pockets.

Another flower head, another bee. Same collecting posture.

This one's got her back to us. Another female.

The two tall plants were covered in happy bees. All the photos I got were of females; there are hundreds of females for each male, and the males do no work. Among the honeybees, they don't even bother to feed themselves. (Male bumblebees do feed, but don't bring food back to the hive.) Their only function is to mate with the queen.

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¡Y más abejas! Estas estaban en un par de plantas de consuelda (Symphytum oficinale) atrás de mi casa.

Todas son hembras: se pueden distinguir por las canastillas para polen que traen en las patas traseras. Todas las fotos que saqué eran de hembras; hay cientos de hembras para cada macho, y los machos no trabajan. Entre las abejas melíferas, ni siquiera se alimentan por si mismos. Los machos de las abejas Bombus (abejorros) si comen, pero no traen comida a la colmena. Su única función es fecundar a la reina.




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