It turns out that (some) solitary bees, like honey bees, evaporate a large
fraction of the water from nectar before applying it to a pile of pollen,
and laying an egg on that nectar-soaked pollen pile.
But how dey do dat?
They make a bubble of nectar suspending it between their mandibles, just
like those ropes on sticks that can make giant soap bubbles.
I, for one, was amazed.
Bees continue to do that from time to time.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0113823http://tinyurl.com/khyccog
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
