Even Bees Dig A Cup Of Joe, New Study States

[slimvictor]

Looks like humans and cubicles aren't the only fans of a good, hot steaming cup of joe. A new study out of the journal Science shows that our hive-minded colleagues, bees, dig caffeine as well.

The study, titled "Caffeine in Floral Nectar Enhances a Pollinator's Memory of Reward," found out that bees tend to remember flowers with caffeine compounds in their nectar better than flowers without. Why? For the same reason anything biologically alive does anything - to reproduce.

"Plant defense compounds occur in floral nectar, but their ecological role is not well understood. We provide evidence that plant compounds pharmacologically alter pollinator behavior by enhancing their memory of reward. Honeybees rewarded with caffeine, which occurs naturally in nectar of Coffea and Citrus species, were three times as likely to remember a learned floral scent as were honeybees rewarded with sucrose alone," reads the study abstract.

One of the alluring aspects of the study is that the plants produce caffeine in order to psychoactively hook the bees, who get a rush and then come back seeking more. This, naturally, leads to there being a greater chance of that flower spreading its seed - a rather Darwinian phenomenon. Bees, on the other side of the coin, seem like they could frankly use a cup of coffee. Working all day is hard, especially when it's said that bees fly the equivalent of twice the circumference of the world in order to produce one pound of honey.



You can read the full study published in the journal Science, or watch this video on what happens to bees when they don't get their morning caffeine fix:

 

[pofacedhoe]

bees around my poppies are particularly possesive and angry if i come near. maybe thats the same thing going on in a different way

its quite extreme how bad their mood is if you get too close

 

[slimvictor]

Bees Buzzing on Caffeine

A new study shows caffeine improves bees’ memory.

A cup of coffee doesn't just provide a jolt for people in the morning. Bees may crave a buzz too. Scientists have found that some plants, like the coffee plant (Coffea), use caffeine to manipulate the memory of bees. The nectar in their flowers holds low levels of caffeine that pollinators find highly rewarding. (Read more about caffeine in National Geographic magazine)

Bitter-tasting caffeine primarily arose in plants as a toxic defense against herbivores like garden slugs. At high doses, caffeine can be toxic and repellent to pollinators.

However, at low concentrations, caffeine appears to have a secondary advantage, attracting honeybees and enhancing their long-term memory, said lead author Geraldine Wright, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University in England, whose study was published online March 7 in the journal Science.

"We show that caffeine—a compound whose ecological role is mainly to deter and poison herbivores—actually acts like a drug in an ecologically relevant context," Wright said. "The plant is secretly drugging the pollinator. It may help the bee, but the plant cares more about having a pollinator with high fidelity!"

cont at
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130308-bees-caffeine-animal-behavior-science/

 

[23536]

One of the coffee places at Cornell has this outdoor patio on a precipice that is always full of bees. They routinely hover over everyone's coffee, seemingly inhaling the fumes and ignoring all the florescence around them. There's like a hundred thousand bees in this small patio in the spring and summer, but nobody ever seems to get stung--even when you swat them away from your face. I've never seen anything like it. It's like the parks in S. Florida that are full of people and gators and nobody's scared. The lion lies down with the lamb.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

word

everyone love da kof