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Discriminating Bees Sniff First, Drink After

ENJOYING the fragrance of flowers is a pleasure for most people. The scent, though, is meant not for them, but for pollinating bees.

And research led by Newcastle University biologist Dr Jeri Wright shows that honey bees quickly recognise which fragrances are linked with the best nectar rewards.

“They become biased towards the scent signal which offers the best rewards,” she said.

The study suggests that a bee’s ability to associate floral scent with the best nectar may be the key to understanding how floral scent has evolved in flowering plants.

But producing nectar for pollinators is a costly business. Instead, some plants try to cheat a pollinator – enticing it to visit and then failing to pay for its services, so getting sexual reproduction for free.

Dr Wright said: “Our research shows that because bees can learn about the signals associated with nectar quality they have the means of avoiding floral cheaters, preferring instead to visit the floral scents they’ve learned to associate with profitable rewards.

“This ability to learn forces flowering plants to be honest about the rewards they advertise and may even select for plants both with scented flowers and with high quality nectar because these plants out-compete others in a floral marketplace.

“Floral scent gives a plant an advantage.”

Plants without a scent can get by through using colour and shape to entice enough bees to “sample” them. But Dr Wright said the research suggests a bee’s “sweet tooth” is likely to be affecting the floral signals that plants use to advertise nectar.

“This is extremely important to the plants because it affects whether or not bees visit them and, therefore, whether or not plants sexually reproduce,” she said.

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