July — Apis mellifera
The one bee almost everybody can name, and the only one in this guide who is not from here. Colonists brought her from Europe, and she did not reach Oregon until settlers carried hives over the trail in the 1850s.
The orange lump on her back leg is not stuck there by accident. Honeybees comb pollen forward through their legs into a polished, hairless hollow on the shin called a corbicula, damp it with a little nectar so it holds its shape, and fly home with it packed.
She is worth seeing clearly for one more reason. Nearly everything people believe about bees — hives, honey, queens, swarms, dancing — comes from this single species. Every other bee in this guide lives a completely different life, and most of them live it alone.
Photographed at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge by Jonathan Swanson.
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