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 58 Apis dorsata DHJanzen100449.jpg high resolution
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| Now Apis dorsata is no clutzy ordinary honey bee. In addition to being able to build their massive wax nests on just about any vertical structure (not requiring a cavity in which to nest as is the case with Apis melifera, our domesticated (African) honeybee), and migrate tens of kilometers in search of massive food sources, this bee can also do what the adult pig or chicken or rat does when there is no bamboo seed crop. It can scavenge, and stay in the game on miserable resources. Here, in a rice field there are flowers, rice flowers. But grass pollen - carried normally by wind - ranges from inedible to even toxic to most species of bees. Not to Apis dorsata, who is foraging on a rice inflorescence in the center of the photograph (try high resolution image). They can apparently, like adult pigs, chickens and rats, eat just about anything. | ||
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