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
Honey bee surface of the comb, which is horizontal (not vertical, as in other species), and worker bees orient the dance in the actual compass direction of the resource to which they are recruiting. "Apis mellifera carnica" honey bees use their antennae asymmetrically for social interactions with a strong lateral preference to use their right antennae. There has been speculation as to honeybee consciousness. The bee was used as a symbol of government by Emperor Napoleon I of France. Both the Hindu "Atharva Veda" and the ancient Greeks associated lips anointed with honey with the gift of eloquence and even of prescience.