Why orchid bees concoct their own fragrance
Published:04 May2023 Source:Ruhr-University Bochum
Male bees display a remarkable passion for collecting scents: they deposit scents from various sources in special pockets on their hind legs, thus composing their own fragrance. This behaviour has been known since the 1960s. The reason why they do it has been the subject of much speculation just as long.
Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of California at Davis and the University of Florida at Fort Lauderdale, have finally solved the mystery. The bee fragrance serves as a sex attractant and increases the reproductive success of the males, as the team found out after three years of experiments in flight cages.
The group headed by PhD student Jonas Henske and Dr. Thomas Eltz from the Bochum Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity describes their findings in the journal Current Biology, published online on 12 April 2023.