Asian Honey Bee Apis cerana foraging on mushrooms

Honey bees ( Apis spp.) are well known for obtaining their nutrition from pollen and nectar collected from a wide range of flowers (Winston, 1991). They also collect honeydew secreted by aphids and scale insects as an additional source of carbohydrate. Many species of bees use plant resins, which when mixed with their saliva produces propolis, a sticky substance used to seal the hive and help combat pathogens and infections (Castro, 2001). In some honey bees e.g. Apis florea propolis can be used as an ant deterrent (Duangphakdee, Koeniger, Koeniger, Wongsiri, & Deowanish, 2005). However, in Brazil the Africanized honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) workers gather mycelium and spores from Cladosporium sp. of fungi (Modro, Silva, & Luz, 2009) but are not known to visit the fruiting body of fungi. Here we report for the first-time honey bee ( A. mellifera ) workers apparently feeding on the fruiting body of fungi.