Honey Bee, Apis mellifera, Female
Apis mellifera, female, side view. The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a species of honey bee. It has a defined social caste system and complex communication behaviors, such as intricate dance routines to indicate food availability. It is frequently maintained by beekeepers for its honey product. This species is widely distributed and an important pollinator for agriculture, though it is currently threatened by colony collapse disorder. It is also an important organism for scientific studies on social insects, especially as it now has a fully sequenced genome. Photographed January 26, 2014.
Size: 4200px × 3239px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 2010s, 2014, 21st, animal, apidae, apis, arthropod, arthropoda, bearing, bee, century, close-, european, fauna, female, honey, honey-bearing, honeybee, hymenoptera, insect, insecta, inventory, lab, macro, macrography, macrophotography, mellifera, monitoring, photography, photomacrography, side, sp., usgs, view, western, worker
