[Pollinator] What's wrong with this picture?

[Davis, Art]

Not sure if it is just hidden, but this pinned honey bee seems to be lacking its left metathoracic leg.  It can sometimes happen that honey bees get one or more of their legs trapped on Asclepias flowers, such that freeing themselves (if successful) may only be possible through a struggle that can cause loss of a leg.

I recall that there was a study some time ago on fate of adult worker honey bees that suffered lost legs -
Jay, S.C. 1969. The effect of leg removal on bees held in packages. Journal of Apicultural Research 8: 147-151.

Otherwise, this specimen has the largest mass of Asclepias pollinia attached to its other legs, that I've seen.

Cheers,
Art Davis
Univ of Saskatchewan

________________________________
From: Pollinator [pollinator-bounces+art.davis=usask.ca at lists.sonic.net] on behalf of Peter Bernhardt [bernhap2 at slu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 1:47 AM
To: Bee United; Pollinator List-serv
Subject: [Pollinator] What's wrong with this picture?

The warm weather has arrived.  Honeybees are visiting the early milkweeds of North America so... what's wrong with this picture (taken this morning from a specimen collected last week)?

Peter
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