Tonguing Pollen. Honeybee, Apis mellifera, on Trifolium repens, White Clover, Meuse Corridor, Venlo, The Netherlands
Emulating Honeybees from our hives when I was a boy, I'd suck the sweet nectar from Clover's tiny florets. And indeed I had many bees as examples. Back then virtually no clover with at least one bee. Now they're far and few between though there are many of those flowers. This afternoon, wandering along the Meuse River, I did see a few bees. But they, like this one, were collecting pollen: behold her stickly-filled corbicula. But take a closer look, too, at her lovely proboscis, also used for seeking nectar.
Tonguing Pollen. Honeybee, Apis mellifera, on Trifolium repens, White Clover, Meuse Corridor, Venlo, The Netherlands
Emulating Honeybees from our hives when I was a boy, I'd suck the sweet nectar from Clover's tiny florets. And indeed I had many bees as examples. Back then virtually no clover with at least one bee. Now they're far and few between though there are many of those flowers. This afternoon, wandering along the Meuse River, I did see a few bees. But they, like this one, were collecting pollen: behold her stickly-filled corbicula. But take a closer look, too, at her lovely proboscis, also used for seeking nectar.