Cartoon by Heyne Lee

*If you have our print issue, see note at bottom.

*In our print issue, all the worker bees are male--this is a mistake. In the honeybee (Apis mellifera), workers are sexually undeveloped females; the males are called drones. Most hives have up to 60,000 workers but only a few hundred drones, and the drones are only reared seasonally to mate with the queen. Besides collecting nectar, workers' tasks include guarding the hive and rearing the young.

More info:

The Sensory Basis of the Honeybee's Dance Language

Honeybee facts