Adrian writes:
>"... be objective.  Don't try to make the results meet your
>hypothesis.  This is a good example of "poor science" ... Despite
>all of the animal behavior research conducted these past several
>decades, I know of only one "law" (in Scott's sense) that has
>emerged in that field: "The Law of Odor-Search Behavior." Quite
>simply put, that law is the simple fact that an animal can find a
>source of odor ONLY by coming in from downwind (or from down current
>- in the case of fish and the like).

Adrian states that bees find floral sources only by odor, and that
they go upwind to find them. But it occurred to me that there me be
another reason why bees go upwind rather than downwind.

Bees may have learned that going downwind is much riskier than flying
upwind. If you go upwind light you can sail downwind heavy. If you
fly downwind light, it will be much harder to beat your way back
fully loaded, especially of the wind increases. (Similarly, I have a
rule never to drive downhill in unfamiliar terrain -- it's an
invitation to get stuck. You can usually back down from a muddy hill
but if you slide down you may never get back up.)

But to credit bees with such insight would be to grant them more
capabilities than some people are willing to do. On the other hand,
it could just be an adaptive thing. Bees that fly upwind to nectar
sources may have had an evolutionary edge.


--

Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>