A Song
Feature
of Nectar and Honey
The Waggle Dance: A Communicative Dance of one of the World’s most Reputable Pollinators Text by Dara Heward Art by Clare Parkes
If there were a competition for the world's most reputable pollinator, honeybees would have a clear shot at first place. Most likely, you’ve seen hundreds to thousands of bees throughout your lifetime. It's possible that you even ran from one during a summer picnic when they relentlessly buzzed around your soda can. If you take a walk outside, even for a little while, you're likely to see at least one honeybee. Or, if you’re lucky, you’ll see many flying around an array of flowers. How do bees go about selecting which flowers to land on out of the millions that bloom every year? This is a question that has led many researchers down a deep rabbit hole of scientific experiments that explore how bees might see and navigate the world. While discussing topics of her research, Dr Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, a Research Leader and Location Coordinator at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, told me, “I’ve been studying honey bees for many, many years and still feel like there is more I don’t know than I do know about them. There are still so many fundamental questions.” Evolution has been playing matchmaker between bees and flowers for millions of years, forming one of nature's closest relationships. The type of relationship that flowers and bees share is considered a symbiotic mutualism, in which each species benefits from one another. It’s a game of give and take; the flower produces nectar and pollen for the bee, and the bee helps the flower continue the next generation of seedlings by pollination. Pollen and nectar are great food sources for bees. Pollen is a source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and lipids. Nectar is a source of carbohydrates that the bee can also use to make honey to form their hives and feed their young.
14 | Boyce Thompson Arboretum | Spring/Summer 2019
