Category: Bees

Bees

How Queen Bees control worker reproduction without castration in stingless bee species

Benadine Nonye
Bees

Study contradicts the view that worker bees are forcibly castrated by the queen among the 600-odd species of stingless bees widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Scientists have studied and been captivated by the organization and functioning of social insect colonies since Charles Darwin (1809-1882) investigated beehives near and at his home in Kent with the help of his five children. Since then, prompted by the theory of evolution, researchers have scrutinized every conceivable aspect of the life of bees. Decades ago, scientists discovered that in…

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Bees use invisible heat patterns to choose flowers

Benadine Nonye

                             Floral heat patterns from rock rose.  Credit: University of Bristol A new study, led by scientists from the University of Bristol, has found that a wide range of flowers produce not just signals that we can see and smell, but also ones that are invisible such as heat. In the hidden world of flower-pollinator interactions, heat can act not only as life-sustaining warmth, but can also be part of the rich variety of sensory signposts that flowers…

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Pesticides may cause bumble bees to lose their buzz, study finds

Benadine Nonye

Pesticides significantly reduce the number of pollen grains a bumblebee is able to collect, a new University of Stirling study has found. The research, conducted by a team in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, found that field-realistic doses of a neonicotinoid pesticide affects the behaviour of bees ultimately interfering with the type of vibrations they produce while collecting pollen. Dr Penelope Whitehorn, the University of Stirling Research Fellow who led the research, said: “Our result is the first to demonstrate quantitative changes in the type of buzzes produced by bees…

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