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Bumblebee at the proverbial chocolate fountain
updated: Sep 29, 2012, 8:40 PM
By David Powdrell
Here's the deal……I stumbled upon a bumblebee in full gorge mode at a backyard Matilija Poppy this
morning. I scrambled to get the camera and caught a few pics of him in the act. He was like an 8-year-
old kid at a chocolate fountain machine; nectar dripping from his face and residue aimlessly strewn over
his body. Cracked me up watching him bathe and twirl in the pool of sweet pollen nectar. I got a
marginal mug shot just as he was leaving....be on the lookout in your neighborhood.
A couple of interesting factoids I discovered at Wikipedia:
· Bumblebees use a combination of color and spatial relationships to learn which flowers to forage
from.
· Upon arriving at a flower, they extract nectar using their long tongue and store the pollen in their
"crop".
· Some species of bumblebees leave a scent mark on the flower, which deters other bumblebees
from visiting that flower.
· Bumblebees are increasingly cultured for agricultural use as pollinators because they can
pollinate plant species that others cannot.
· Some species of bumblebees are endangered in many developed countries due to habitat
destruction and collateral pesticide damage.
· According to Antoine Magnan's Le vol des insects, the laws of aerodynamics suggest that the
bumblebee should be incapable of flight.
* I refer to the bumblebee as a "he". Could easily have been a "her". Couldn't confirm from my
perspective. ;-)
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