The Birds And The Bees (Bees, Mostly)

[Muddypause]

I was watching a bumble bee on my runner beans this morning - a big B52 bomber of a bee. To my surprise, it didn't crawl up inside the flower head to get at the nectar (and thus doing the all important thing with the pollen). Instead, it climbed on the back of the flower, and nibbled a tiny hole in the base of the flower head, and stuck its proboscis in there to get at the stuff it was after - thus going nowhere near the pollen. You can just see the hole (circled) here:



That seems a bit odd, symbiotically speaking - it's fine for the bee, but the plant gets no benefit from it, and if other insects start doing this, pollination is going to be a problem. Is this just a bumble bee thing? Or a runner bean thing?

[Shirley]

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles08 ... _beans.asp

This should answer your question I hadn't heard of this happening before but it's a short tongued bumble bee that can't get at the nectar - gotta get it somehow.

[Muddypause]

Thanks, Shirlz. Interesting link.

No shortage of beans, so I suppose nature has it all under control.