Bees Sense Electric Fields of Flowers

I had read it.. a good bit of work. It went on to say that all plants have a weak electric field and that they're unsure if the bee's actually use this ability to sense electrical fields to sense flowers. (not likely) the test they did applied 30V to the artificial flower feeders and there were other issues with the testing that I will not get into right now.

The navigational use of the hair on the bee and other insects could be related to these weak fields, but the flower makes itself known to the bee in other ways.

"The navigational use of the hair on the bee and other insects could be related to these weak fields, but the flower makes itself known to the bee in other ways."

I would agree with this. Bees seem to spend quite a bit of time hanging around my hummingbird feeders.

Thanks, that's very interesting.

"The light spectrum bees see is from 600 - 300 nm. The colors bees see are blue-green, blue, violet, and ultraviolet, with research showing our purple followed by our violet then our blue as their favorites. Mixing ultraviolet wavelengths with the wavelengths of colors they can and can't see, gives bees a world of color different from our own. If deprived of UV light, bees lose interest in foraging, and remain in the hive until forced out by severe food shortages."

"Bees not only see flowers in different colors than we do, bees also see ultra-violet light patterns, invisible to us, at the center that are a different color than the rest of the flower. From a bee's-eye-view, the UV colors and patterns in a flower's petals dramatically announce the flower's stash of nectar and pollen. These UV patterns serve as a landing zone, guiding the bees to the nectar source. "

http://westmtnapiary.com/Bees_and_color.html

http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html

We had a hive of Africanized bees move in next door west in a hollow of a partially dead tree, and these guys spent a lot of time picking up water at our dog/bird watering device. One of our dogs kept messing with them and got stung once, but no swarm. Neighbor called the bee killers as soon as he knew about the nest. No more bees, sadly, I think. Now that we have been receiving rain after rain here in "dry" West Texas, no sign of any bees around at all, low UV?

Another topic about flowers and electric fields and/or the ability of flowers to turn to face the sun, notably sunflowers, and to some extent, roses. It appears that some of the people involved in artificial vision were studying these effects to assist them in device design, I did not follow the reasoning why.

I've noticed that mosquitoes respond to the electric field of my bug zapper!

BFD. Bees can sense the Kirlian auras of flowers. Of course.

I sense, 16:00 (quitting time) is on the way, and it's Friday.