Flowers caffeinated “addictive” bees for pollination, says research – Digital Journal

 
 
 British scientists have found that some plants can attract more bees to collect nectar times making them “addicted” to caffeine.
 

Scientists at the University of Sussex, they found that bees find irresistible the effect of caffeine and end up choosing the nectar containing caffeine instead of the nectar of other plants.

Many plants produce caffeine naturally with the primary objective of amazing insects that could devour them like caterpillars.

But the British experience, published in the journal Current Biology, showed that bees are ” tricked “by the nectar containing caffeine.

Margaret Couvillon, who led the research, said the more traditional image we have of the pollination process is that of a” warm relationship, mutual benefit ‘, in which the pollinator gets a reward plan. But the experience at the University of Sussex showed that is not the case.

“We are showing that the plant can exercise a kind of domination over the bee, through action that is similar to the drug (the insect), “he said.

Francis Ratnieks, a member of the University of Sussex team, told the BBC that other research had shown that caffeine nectar of some plants improved the memory of bees to locate a flower

To find out how far would the effects of the perception of this nectar caffeinated, the team placed two artificial flowers for bees to feed:. containing sweet nectar without caffeine and the other with a concentration of like compound that found in many plants.

And also stuck a tiny card with a number on the back of the bees to be able to monitor and record the behavior of each.

The bees returning for nectar caffeinated faster, making more trips to collect compound. But the most striking finding was that caffeine was the bees “danced” much more

After visiting the nectar containing caffeine, the bees showed more likely to do the dance. – Moves that usually do to communicate the location of a source of nectar for other bees

“The vast majority of non-dancing bees – they do it just to communicate a particularly good place (to find food).” he said.

The scientists concluded that caffeine has an effect on insects’ like a drugged person “, causing them to behave as if the source of nectar was more quality and richer in sugar.

“And we assume that it is more ‘cheap’ for the plant to produce a small amount of caffeine than a larger amount of sugar,” he added.

Margaret Couvillon told the BBC that the after effects exposure to caffeine were amazing too.

“The bees collected (nectar with) caffeine continued to visit the feeder (for days) after it has emptied,” said the researcher told the BBC.

“So the purpose of this three-hour experience (with caffeine) lasted for many days.”