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Date: | Tue, 16 Sep 1997 08:47:04 -0700 |
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Perhaps it depends on one's definition of "liquid", but bees certainly
eat "solid" pollen, not just the liquid layer on top of pollen-filled
cells. A worker bee's rectum is often full of the "solid" remnants
(outer shell) of pollen grains.
That outer shell, by the way, is made of a remarkably durable substance.
People (sometimes even public employees) can extract pollen grains from
a core taken from the sediments of lakes, and infer many things about
the environment thousands of years in the past. The extraction process
uses extremely corrosive chemicals like hot nitric acid, hydrochloric
acid, etc to dissolve everything else (including quartz sand!) and leave
the pollen grains in a condition so close to "new" that they can be
readily identified by the texture of their surface and pattern of pores
through the coat, as well as their size and shape.
Regards
Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist
B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
1201 103 Ave
Dawson Creek B.C.
V1G 4J2 CANADA Tel (250) 784-2231 fax (250) 784-2299
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