Western Honey bee

Description:

This honey bee has black bands and orange rings on its abdomen. It has a hairy thorax and hair around its eyes. Its' legs are dark brown/black in color. Honey bees have a pollen basket or corbicula to store pollen in during flight.

Habitat:

I found this bee collecting nectar/pollen from a wild Prickly Pear flower. Western Honey bees can be found throughout the world except Antarctica. They can be found in forests, deserts, grasslands, urban and suburban areas where there is a food supply and adequate nesting sites.

Notes:

Fun Facts: 1. Honey bee colonies can reach numbers into the tens of thousands. 2. Queen honey bees only need to mate once and will continuously lay eggs over her lifetime. She can lay up to 1,000 eggs per day! 3. Queen honey bees are in control of whether they lay a fertilized or unfertilized egg. 4. Depending on what the female larvae of honey bees are fed and what pheromones are present during this time determines if the larvae will develop as worker bees or queens. Honey bees that will develop as queens are fed "royal jelly". Ref: https://bugguide.net/node/view/3080