Apis Mellifera i Western Honey Bee

This detailed coloured pencil painting of a honey bee, the apis mellifera, was a naive introduction to the bee's anatomy.

They have six legs all seemingly double-jointed with specific jobs is unimaginable until you start trying to draw a honey bee. Only the female worker bees collect pollen and to help them with this they (the only bees from the hive) have pollen baskets on their rear legs. This is just one interesting fact about them; discover more about honey bees in Izzie Lizzie Busy Bee, as the life of a honey bee is explored through the diary of a bee.

Bees also have two sets of two wings; four wings in total which is useful when trying to identify a western honey bee from a hover fly (flower fly) or a bee fly, each of which has only two wings. The details of the wings can help identify a honey bee, such as the slim, banana-shaped marginal cells on the forewings, which are longer and more curved than those of a bumblebee.

As for their eyes, they have five; two large eyes for colours and patterns and the other three eyes relating to flying and navigation.

Then, drawing the rest of the bee, in different positions, from different perspectives, becomes more challenging thereafter!