Page 106 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

104 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

The bee’s eye is created to per-
ceive ultraviolet rays. In this
way, ultraviolet light reflected
from the petals of flowers give
flying bees the full coordinates
of the pollen.

Thanks to the special structure in
their eyes, bees setting out in
search of food can easily make out
the flowers before them, just like
the lights of an airport runway
(right).

the Sun. Thanks to them, they’re able to correct the directions they give to
other hive members and find their targets without error as the Sun moves
through the sky.

Flower-Marking Methods

Before the foraging bees return to the hive, they deposit a
special scent on their food source. Every worker has a scent
gland in its body, which it can use at will. This gland, which is lo-
cated at the rear of the bee, under normal circumstances is invisible from
the outside. The bee can expose this gland when it so chooses, and spreads
the gland’s scent over the flower it lands on and its surroundings. This
scent resembles the aroma of the Melissa plant and can easily be perceived
by human beings. Bees are especially sensitive to the odor of bees from
their own hives, and can detect it even from considerable distances. 88
Thanks to the way in which bees mark flowers, other bees can recog-
nize that most of the nectar has been drawn from a particular flower as