Western honey bee
Milkweed

In North America, various native milkweed species may be found with dead western honey bees stuck to their flowers. The non-native western honey bees are attracted to the flowers but are not adapted to their pollination mechanisms. The milkweed pollinium is collected when the tarsus (foot) of an insect falls into one of the flower's stigmatic slits as it obtains nectar from the flower's hood. If the insect is unable to remove its tarsus from the stigmatic slit it is likely to die due to predation or starvation/exhaustion. If the insect is able to escape with damaged or missing tarsi it may also be likely to die from its injuries. Western honey bees which escape with their tarsi intact may have their nectar gathering ability obstructed by parts of the pollinia being stuck to the bee's proboscis, resulting in starvation. The pollinia may also stick to the bee's tarsal claws, causing a lack of climbing ability and honey gathering which may result in expulsion from the colony leading to death. Native butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, bees and wasps are common milkweed visitors which are often able to escape without issue, though some species of Megachile, Halictus, Astata, Lucilia, Trichius, Pamphila and Scepsis have been found dead on the flowers. After removing over 140 dead bees from a patch of A. sullivantii, entomologist Charles Robertson quipped "... it seems that the flowers are better adapted to kill hive-bees than to produce fruit through their aid."
change_case:capital_word_frequency[10], keywords:letter_frequency