How an annual ‘wedding flight’ of 1,000 virgin queens is ensuring the revival of Europe’s dark bee
via theguardian.com
Short excerpt below. Read at the original source.
The Belgian ceremony attracts beekeepers from the Netherlands, France and Germany keen to boost dark bee numbers and stop the spread of the hybrid honeybee Every summer, 1,000 virgin queens descend on the Belgian town of Chimay. During the “wedding flight”, a male attaches to the female. His endophallus (penis equivalent) is torn off and […]