What will science think of next?
Will it be elastic water? Nope. Already done.
(by Alex Wild)
On Facebook? Learn how to use it properly.
In England, a recruiter wants to put out an ad for a reliable worker — they are told they cannot, as the job description would then discriminate against the unreliable.
I know very little about bees, it turns out. But they are outside. They fly around and land on the flowers in our gardens. Also, I have a camera.
This blog entry is a combination of these facts. In order to intersperse some semi-factual text, I am using the “copy” and “paste” functions available on my computer, together with Wikipedia. All facts presented here should be considered accordingly. See if you can spot which is the original Wikipedia text, and which are the bits I have added!
Above, you may witness two bees. Bees are not very good models for photography — they may be lookers, but they are very bad at following directions. Hence, most photos are of a single bee, and the bees are rarely looking at the camera.
Also, bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila.
There are no bees in Antarctica. I assume there are ants there. There are no ants in this blog.
Bees have a long proboscis (a complex “tongue”) that enables them to obtain the nectar from flowers. Bees are the favourite food of the bee-eater, much like ants are the favourite food of the anteater. There are no anteaters on this blog.
Most bees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge. In other words, they can tase you — though this is more commonly known as “stinging”. Female bees periodically stop foraging and groom themselves. Visiting flowers can be a dangerous occupation. Many assassin bugs and crab spiders hide in flowers to capture unwary bees.
Remember this the next time your child wants to go smell the pretty flowers: assassin bugs!
Above, a bee finally follows my instructions and faces the camera. Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. Highly eusocial bees live in colonies. However, EU Socialist bees are rarely found outside of continental Europe.
