Description:
Italian honeybees (
Apis mellifera ligustica) and a typical afternoon at the
hive entrance. Many of the
workers gathered around the entrance are 'fanning', which distributes a powerful homing
pheromone from a
gland on the bee's abdomen, and also helps to ventilate and cool the hive. The bees facing outward are mostly entrance guards, who inspect bees as they land to make sure invaders cannot enter the hive. In the upper left corner of the photo a
forager is preparing to land, with a harvest of
pollen stuck to the hairs on her rear legs, which will be used to feed the
brood developing inside the hive.Photo taken with a
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 in
Caldwell County, NC, USA. Date: 30 May 2008, 17:56 −04:00. Source:
KenThomas.us(personal website of photographer). Author:
Ken Thomas. Permission(
Reusing this file): This image is released to the
public domain, and therefore no permission or credit is required.Comments and/or feedback however, are always welcome. See my
user page for contact info.
