[Pollinator] What's Wrong? (Mystery Solved)

[Peter Bernhardt]

I played a naughty trick on all of you.  This photo is from a specimen
collected a week ago on a mountain on the outskirts of Kunming, Yunnan,
China.

1)  That's not A. mellifera.  It's A. cerana.

2)  Those pollinaria do not belong to a milkweed as milkweeds (Asclepias)
are not native to China.  A relative of Asclepias is the vine, Dregea
sinensis (large, pretty, beautifoully scented flowers).  The maximum number
of pollinaria found on one A cerana collected from this vine this year was
66!

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/details?plantid=673

I'd like to thank Retha Meier, Justin Zweck, Courtney Dvorsky, Dave Roubik
and Peter Kevan for not giving the answers away.

Peter
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