I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
So are they digesting some? and taking some for ron?
AwesomeO said:
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
So what do the Bees do with the pollen?
bob(from black rock) said:
AwesomeO said:
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
So what do the Bees do with the pollen?
Make it into honey.
bob(from black rock) said:
AwesomeO said:
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
So what do the Bees do with the pollen?
Pollen ate.
And those yellow daisy things are probably cape weed, slowly getting rid of mine by mowing, the dead ones do leave nitrogen in the soil though.
AwesomeO said:
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
Not quite. Butterflies eat the nectar. Bees collect the nectar and the pollen. When they move from flower to flower, the bees pollinate the plant; back at the hive the nectar is converted to honey for storage and consumption as needed by the entire colony, and the pollen is fed to the larvae.
Ta btm.
btm said:
AwesomeO said:
furious said:
- I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Its all about the nectar, isn’t it? Except one is dine on while the other is takeaway…
Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
Not quite. Butterflies eat the nectar. Bees collect the nectar and the pollen. When they move from flower to flower, the bees pollinate the plant; back at the hive the nectar is converted to honey for storage and consumption as needed by the entire colony, and the pollen is fed to the larvae.
Thank you, I stand corrected and whilst doing some googling I learned that that pollen is fed to the larvae and called bee bread. So my apologies to Bob.
…and Furious.
bob(from black rock) said:
I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Same. Both nectar.
Pollen is just an unwanted hitchhiker for both.
Add flower wasps and ants to that too. All are after the nectar.
AwesomeO said:
And those yellow daisy things are probably cape weed, slowly getting rid of mine by mowing, the dead ones do leave nitrogen in the soil though.
They are cape weed, also known as Cape Daisy, in my lawn. I don’t mind them. It’s the bindiis that I don’t like.
Come to think of it, Bob. I have seen both honeybees and “common brown” butterflies on mine as well.
(Note on spellchecker, first it changed bindiis to gondolas, then it changed bindiis to Hindustani.)
At least bindiis are easy to weed out.
In Armidale, it took two summers. I’ve been pulling them out here today. Probably got 5 litres of them. Into the compost…
AwesomeO said:
bob(from black rock) said:
AwesomeO said:Nahh, bees collect pollen, butterfly’s sup nectar. This can be demonstrated by the butterfly’s specialised feeding apparatus and that bees return to the hive laden with pollen.
So what do the Bees do with the pollen?
Make it into honey.
They feed it to their babes and also make it into Royal Jelly.
AwesomeO said:
And those yellow daisy things are probably cape weed, slowly getting rid of mine by mowing, the dead ones do leave nitrogen in the soil though.
any dead thing leaves some nitrogen.
The capeweed has a new competitor, Gazania. Soon the paddocks won’t only be yellow or purple for Capeweed and Patersons Curse. Now they’ll also be all the shades of red and orange.
sings “blue moon”
mollwollfumble said:
bob(from black rock) said:
I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Same. Both nectar.
Pollen is just an unwanted hitchhiker for both.Add flower wasps and ants to that too. All are after the nectar.
pollen isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker… it is necessary for pollination and therefore more flowers.. it is a symbiotic relationship
Arts said:
mollwollfumble said:
bob(from black rock) said:
I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Same. Both nectar.
Pollen is just an unwanted hitchhiker for both.Add flower wasps and ants to that too. All are after the nectar.
pollen isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker… it is necessary for pollination and therefore more flowers.. it is a symbiotic relationship
Indeed, this be so.
Arts said:
mollwollfumble said:
bob(from black rock) said:
I have observed Bees and Butterflies grazing together on yellow flowers (daisies?), are they both collecting the same substances from the flowers or are they collecting different stuff?
Same. Both nectar.
Pollen is just an unwanted hitchhiker for both.Add flower wasps and ants to that too. All are after the nectar.
pollen isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker… it is necessary for pollination and therefore more flowers.. it is a symbiotic relationship
Pollen certainly isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker in bees; they’ve got pockets on their legs for holding it. As has already been noted, they feed it to their young.
btm said:
Arts said:
mollwollfumble said:Same. Both nectar.
Pollen is just an unwanted hitchhiker for both.Add flower wasps and ants to that too. All are after the nectar.
pollen isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker… it is necessary for pollination and therefore more flowers.. it is a symbiotic relationship
Pollen certainly isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker in bees; they’ve got pockets on their legs for holding it. As has already been noted, they feed it to their young.
Yes. They don’t make honey out of it. They feed it to their young. They also catch it on all the hairs on their bodies and transfer it everywhere. The buzz pollinator bees play a slightly different role while they sup nectar, their buzz shakes pollen all over the plants which prefer this method.
btm said:
Arts said:
mollwollfumble said:Same. Both nectar.
Pollen is just an unwanted hitchhiker for both.Add flower wasps and ants to that too. All are after the nectar.
pollen isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker… it is necessary for pollination and therefore more flowers.. it is a symbiotic relationship
Pollen certainly isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker in bees; they’ve got pockets on their legs for holding it. As has already been noted, they feed it to their young.
of course we must also note the great pollination work of the wasp, the hummingbird and the bat …
Arts said:
btm said:
Arts said:pollen isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker… it is necessary for pollination and therefore more flowers.. it is a symbiotic relationship
Pollen certainly isn’t an unwanted hitchhiker in bees; they’ve got pockets on their legs for holding it. As has already been noted, they feed it to their young.
of course we must also note the great pollination work of the wasp, the hummingbird and the bat …
The honey possums and all those ants…
the parts of a flower are so constructed that very very often the wind may cause pollination
if not, then a bee or any other nectar gathering creature can create the same situation….
Arts said:
the parts of a flower are so constructed that very very often the wind may cause pollination
if not, then a bee or any other nectar gathering creature can create the same situation….
Many plants prefer thta wind is the easiest transport and anything above that is a bonus. Other plants have pollen so heavy that it cannot be sensibly transferred by wind at all. These plants develop more specialised symbiotic arrangements.
Bees and (some) butterflies collect nectar.
Quite secondarily they pick up and distribute pollen.