BEE AND FLOWERS

             Karl Frich (1886-1982) was an Austrian zoologist who studied how bees communicate with other. In 1973 he received a Nobel Prize for his work on animal behavior.

             The sent from a flower that has produced nectar through the air. It may stimulate the receptor cell of a honey bee and the insect flies towards it. As it get closer, the bee uses its eyes to find the flower, its eyes are sensitive to ultraviolet light. This make some of the pale markings we see in normal light stand out more distinctly to help the bee identify the flower. Some of the markings are lines running down the inside of petal. They are called honey guides and direct the bee towards the nectar.

             
After landing on the flower the sticks its head between the stamens and probes the nectary with its mouth parts. While taking up the nectar it brushes past the anthers and pollen collects on the hairs of its back. When the bee has collected the nectar it flies on to the next flower and feeds again. Some of the pollen passes onto the stigma of the next flower

              The bee has stiff hairs on its front legs. Periodically it runs them through its body hair like a comb. This action collects the pollen off the bee’s back and it is stored in structures, made from hairs on its back legs called pollen baskets.

              When the bee swallows the nectar it collects in a cavity called the honey sac. The action of enzymes and the addition of other substances change the nectar in to honey. After the bee has returned to its hive, it regurgitates the honey and passes it on to other bees working in the hive. They store it in the honeycomb. Also, the pollen is removed from the pollen baskets and stored.

              The bee indicates the source of the nectar to the other bees in the hive by performing a dance on the honeycomb. The dance involves the bee moving in circles, waggling its abdomen and moving straight up and down on the vertical surface of the honeycomb. From this performance the other bees can tell the distance, direction and amount of nectar available and can set out to search for it.