Velcro on the petals helps the bee cling

When honeybees collect nectar, how do they cling to it? Scientists from Cambridge University have recently suggested that winged cone-shaped cells are used as a paste to the feet of honey bees.

New research shows that bees can recognize the structure of petal surfaces just by touch. More importantly, they choose to respond to petals with cones that help them stick more easily than petals with smooth surfaces. They can then take nectar from the flower more effectively.

In the natural world, bees can rely on visual or olfactory information without having to land directly on the flower. The ability to identify surfaces that can shape it with touch is therefore restricted to use to identify flowers. The team of researchers led by Beverley Glover raises the question of whether cone cells play a special role by helping bees to stick more easily than other smooth surfaces, thereby helping to collect. Nectar crosses are easier for honey bees.

To test this, the researchers used but artificial flowers were cast from pine resin, half of the flowers had cones and half were smooth surfaces. When the rosin-cast flowers are horizontal, the bees do not show the difference. They only visit each type for half the normal time. However, when changing the perspective they choose flowers with more cones. If flowers are placed vertically, bees visit the flower with more than 60% of cones.

Honey bees collect honey from plum blossoms.(Photo: iStockphoto / James Brey)

Researchers funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have explained why bees prefer more cones. Using high-speed cinematography, they observed that when bees find a way to park on smooth petals, they have to crawl up to cling, like a struggling climber. to find a place on the cliff-covered cliff. However, for flowers with cones, bees are always easy to find grip, they do not have to smash their wings when taking nectar anymore.

The next step in the study is to determine whether bees in the natural world really like real flowers with cells that shape it. The researchers used dog snout flower with petal-bearing petals and mutant dog-snout flower form without this cell. When the flowers are placed horizontally, the bees do not need to work so hard to land on them, they visit the flower with cones 50% of the time . However, when flowers are placed vertically, more effort is required to hold on to them, bees learn to distinguish flowers with cones and park them on these flowers 74% of the time.

About 80% of the flowers have cones, researchers believe that all pollinators that perish on the flower (eg butterflies, flies and bees) may have special preferences for the wings. Flowers have a rough surface.

Beverley Glover said: 'For bees, maintaining balance and sticking to flowers is not a simple task, especially in wet or windy conditions. It is wonderful to see that evolution has found a simple solution to support flowers with a surface like a velcro so that bees can easily grasp. '

References
Heather M. Whitney, Chittka Lars, Toby JA Bruce, and Beverley J. Glover.Conical Epidermal Cells Allow Bees to Grip Flowers and Increase Foraging Efficiency.Current Biology, 2009;DOI: 10.1016 / j.cub.2009.04.051