Insect Collection Set - Honey Bee & Blue Bottle Fly & Big-head Ant

A set of real Honey Bee - Apis mellifera and Blue Bottle Fly - Calliphora vomitoria and Big-head Ant - Pheidologeton diversus specimen encased in rectangular indestructible, transparent lucite block.

Safe, authentic and completely unbreakable specimen put real Spiders right at your fingertips!

Anyone can safely explore the Specimens from every angle.

It is clear enough for microscope observation.

Length of the specimen body is 1.2 cm, 0.8 cm and 1.6 cm (0.5, 0.3 and 0.6 inch).

Size of the lucite block is 4.5x3.0x2.5 cm (1.8x1.2x1.0 inch)

Weight of the block is 30 g and 45 g with packing box.

This is a handmade real animal specimen craft. Each one will be a bit different (specimen size, color and posture) even in the same production batch.
The pictures in the listing are just for reference as we are selling multiple pieces with same pictures.

***

Honey Bee - Apis mellifera

The Western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a species of honey bee. This species was introduced to China from early 20th century and has been raised widely around the country.

In the temperate zone, honey bees survive winter as a colony, and the queen begins egg laying in mid to late winter, to prepare for spring. This is most likely triggered by longer day length. She is the only fertile female, and deposits all the eggs from which the other bees are produced. Except a brief mating period when she may make several flights to mate with drones, or if she leaves in later life with a swarm to establish a new colony, the queen rarely leaves the hive after the larvae have become full grown bees. The queen deposits each egg in a cell prepared by the worker bees. The egg hatches into a small larva which is fed by nurse bees (worker bees who maintain the interior of the colony). After about a week, the larva is sealed up in its cell by the nurse bees and begins the pupal stage. After another week, it will emerge an adult bee.

For the first ten days of their lives, the female worker bees clean the hive and feed the larvae. After this, they begin building comb cells. On days 16 through 20, a worker receives nectar and pollen from older workers and stores it. After the 20th day, a worker leaves the hive and spends the remainder of its life as a forager. The population of a healthy hive in mid-summer can average between 40,000 and 80,000 bees.

Blue Bottle Fly - Calliphora vomitoria

Order: Diptera
Suborder: Brachycera
Infraorder: Muscomorpha
Subsection: Calyptratae
Superfamily: Oestroidea
Family: Calliphoridae
Subfamily: Calliphorinae
Tribe: Calliphorini
Genus: Calliphora
Species: C. vomitoria

The blue bottle fly or bottlebee (Calliphora vomitoria) is a common blow-fly found in most areas of the world and is the type species for the genus Calliphora.

It is 10-14 mm long, slightly larger than a housefly. The head and thorax are dull gray and the abdomen is bright metallic blue with black markings. Its body and legs are covered with black bristle-like hair. The eyes are red and the wings are clear. The legs and antennae are black.

Big-head Ant - Pheidologeton diversus

Classification

Distribution: Tropical and sub-tropical Asia (China, Taiwan, Japan)

Description: Total length between 1.3 and 2.5 mm in minor workers. Body color yellowish brown to reddish brown in minor workers: reddish brown to blackish brown in majors. In minor workers: head rectangular with weakly convex posterior margin in full face view; mandibles each with 5 teeth; antennal scapes short, not exceeding posterior margin of head; each of the apical two funicular segments long, their combined length longer than the rest of funiculus; promesonotum relatively strongly convex in profile; metanotal groove deeply incised; dorsum of propodeum convex; propodeal spines long, with acute apices. In major workers: head proportionately large, almost square, with convex posterior margin in frontal view; anterior margin of clypeus straight, with a shallow median notch; mandibles large, triangular, with an acute apical tooth; masticatory margins without distinct teeth; eyes relatively small; ocelli present; antennal scapes 0.5 times as long as head; subpetiolar process present.