UC Davis Communications Specialist Kathy Keatley Garvey in the Department of Entomology snapped this amazing one-in-a-million shot, capturing a honeybee stinging a man, with its abdominal tissue trailing behind.

The snapshot won the first-place gold feature photo award in an Association for Communication Excellence competition.

The Sacramento Bee wrote:

An opportune time came for Garvey to capture this photo when she was walking with a friend and a bee came close to him and starting buzzing in a high-pitch. She said that’s normally a telltale sign that a bee’s about to sting, so she readied her camera and snapped four photos.

“As far as I know, nobody’s been able to record anything like this,” Garvey said. She said the only time she’s seen it illustrated was in a textbook drawing.

She said her love of bees led her to create a garden in her backyard so she can constantly observe and photograph them.

“I always see something different in every bee,” she said. “The Italians are more gold colored, some have mites, some have wings that are kind of clipped from predators. I always take my camera with me.”

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