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Honeybee drone penis. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a penis from a drone honeybee (Apis mellifera). The penis is known as an endophallus. During mating, a virgin honeybee 'queen' will leave the nest and fly towards a drone swarm. During mating, a male will mount the queen in the air, insert his endophallus and ejaculate semen. After mating, the male falls off the female leaving his endophallus behind. He will eventually die. Other males will continue to mate with the queen, removing the previous male's endophallus in the process. The queen stores the sperm for use throughout her life to produce eggs. Magnification: x17 when printed at 10cm wide. (KEYSTONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/CHR 366 ANDREW SYRED/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY) === ===