beaucoup d'abeilles

Only the one bee but here you can see it's progression around this lavender flower.

This is a bumble bee, of which there are over 250 species, of which about 20 exist in the UK. They are the largest of the bees in this country.

The biological bits:

Bees, as with other insects do not have blood or a circulatory system, but instead have hemolymph which bathes all it's internal organs from a sort of bath-full of hemolymph and provides them with oxygen that way.

Another very interesting fact is that the female bees can decide whether to fertilise her eggs or not (neat trick eh?). The un-fertlised eggs grow up to be males (I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere!) and the ones she decides to pass through her 'reservoir of previously collected sperm, grow up to be females and queens.



PS. Many thanks for all your well-wishing yesterday, I am much better now. This bug has swept through the family but luckily is only a very short-lived thing.