Nectar That Gives Bees a Buzz Lures Them Back for More

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Nectar That Gives Bees a Buzz Lures Them Back for More

By JAMES GORMAN
Published: March 7, 2013

Nothing kicks the brain into gear like a jolt of caffeine. For bees, that is.

And they don’t need to stand in line for a triple soy latte. A new study shows that the naturally caffeine-laced nectar of some plants enhances the learning process for bees, so that they are more likely to return to those flowers.

“The plant is using this as a drug to change a pollinator’s behavior for its own benefit,” said Geraldine Wright, a honeybee brain specialist at Newcastle University in England, who, with her colleagues, reported those findings in Science on Thursday.

The research, other scientists said, not only casts a new light on the ancient evolutionary interaction between plants and pollinators, but is an intriguing confirmation of deep similarities in brain chemistry across the animal kingdom.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/science/plants-use-caffeine-to-lure-bees-scientists-find.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Nice. eom

[dipsydoodle]

2. I'm like that with Mead

which is made from honey.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swedish_Mead.JPG

[Javaman]

3. I tried looking for the original paper on this research without much sucess...

A few people here know that I keep bees and I would love to find out what the ratio is for nectar to caffeine is.

In the coming hotter months here in Texas I have to feed my bees sugar water as a supplement when the nectar isn't running. A drop or two of coffee in a quart jar seems to be what I've gleaned from a few of the articles on this topic implies. Since it states that the bees didn't' "taste it". So it was probably in incredibly small amounts. But I'm not sure and don't want to take any chances.