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 also provide information regarding the forager's subjective evaluation of the food source's profitability. Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch was one of the first ethologists to investigate both the waggle dance and round dance through his studies examining honey bee foraging behaviours, and is credited with translating many of their underlying mechanisms. If a foraging honey bee ("Apis mellifera") locates a profitable food source, she returns to the hive and performs a round dance to communicate its location. The forager bee moves in close circles over the comb, alternating directions. The round dance is performed by the forager bee