Apis mellifera

Fun Facts:

1) Apis mellifera (commonly known as the honey bee) is the most important group of insect pollinators on the planet. If you like eating fruit and vegetables, thank a bee.

2) If your name is Melissa, know that it comes from the Greek word for honey bee, which in turn comes from the word meli for honey. Now that's a sweet name!   

3) Bees use nectar to make honey. They combine the nectar with special enzymes that break down complex sugars into simple sugars. The mix is placed in honeycombs and allowed to evaporate until it gets gooey(<== highly technical term) before becoming honey. 

4) Foraging bees love to dance! The round dance and the waggle dance are both used to communicate food sources to other bees. The former indicates the location of a food source close to the hive and the latter, a food source further away from the hive.

5) Foraging and worker bees are all female and possess a stinger which is a modified ovipositor. The ovipositor is an egg laying organ. Males, called drones, do not have ovipositors so they cannot sting. They are generally defensless.

6) To keep from getting lost while foraging, Apis meliffera uses the Earth's magnetic filed, the position of the sun, her internal clock, and her ability to see polarized light to track her location. 

7) A foraging bee returning to the hive will transfer her nectar mouth to mouth to another bee that starts the process of making honey. Hey, use a glass, seesh! 

Yes, this is me holding a swarm.

Flash Fiction ~300 words: (I wrote this last night at 1am...I guess that makes it this morning then. Apologies in advance.)

Cold, blood-draining fear enveloped him. For a few seconds he was paralyzed by the faint hum in the distance. It filtered into his ear canal like a dark whisper from the lips of Hell. And then he saw it, a black cloud gliding down the mountain. Apis Q had released her swarm. Devon knew he had to run. The extraction team would not come this time. He was on his own. His only chance of survival was to get to the portal before the swarm claimed him.

He ran hard.

He ran for his life.

Behind him, the buzzing sound of death in a sharp crescendo converged on the outer edges of his darkest fears.  

Don’t look back, just keep running.

But the urge was too strong. He had to look. For a fraction of a second, he glanced over his shoulder and his fears became reality. The swarm of bees had reached him. Their tiny bodies latch on, dozens at a time, gripping the soft skin of his neck and scurrying down his back on jointed appendages. They buzzed and vibrated as they invaded Devon's body, spreading into his hair, over his arms, and moving between the folds of his clothes. He could not stop the swell of panic from rising. His breath shortened. Frantically, he tried brushing off the miniscule aggressors with awkward flailing movements that succeeded only in slowing him down. As the portal came into view, the bees changed strategies. In unison, they drove their sickle shaped stingers into his body, injecting him with the contagion. The pain snapped his body back lifting his feet off the ground. Balance was lost and he pummelled to the hard earth, inches from the portal. Bees now blanketed his body and face. If only he could push through the pain to reach the delicate membrane of the portal…

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Thank you to everyone who helped put this A-Z Challenge together.
I have nothing written in advance, but I'll do my best to keep up!