Western honey bee Since workers are not fully sexually developed, they do not mate with drones and thus can only produce haploid (male) offspring. Queens and workers have a modified ovipositor, a stinger, with which they defend the hive. Unlike bees of any other genus and the queens of their own species, the stinger of worker honey bees is barbed. Contrary to popular belief, a bee does not always die soon after stinging; this misconception is based on the fact that a bee will usually die after stinging a human or other mammal. The stinger and its venom sac, with musculature and a
Round dance (honey bee) Round dance (honey bee) Round dance is a term used to describe the communicative behaviour of a foraging honey bee ("Apis mellifera"), in which she flies over the comb in close circles, alternating right and then left. The round dance indicates that the forager has located a profitable food source close to the hive. When the food source is relatively far away (over 50 meters), the round dance transitions into the waggle dance. By performing the round dance, the forager communicates information pertaining to the food source's distance and direction from the hive to the follower bees. Elements of the