All work and no vigilance makes a forager a dead bee

Honey bees are renowned for their hard work.  Outside the hive, foragers buzz rapidly from flower to flower, collecting nectar in a special stomach and pollen on their hind legs.  Inside the hive, there is constant motion as returning foragers communicate the locations of bountiful flower patches through 'waggle dances' and thousands of workers construct wax cells, process nectar into honey, store honey and pollen in the comb, and care for larvae.

Workers start out their adult lives with tasks inside the hive.  After a couple of weeks, workers may begin to leave the safety of the hive to forage.  While their single-minded dedication to work is often commended, their frequent neglect of danger as they carry out their tasks demonstrates the downside of being 'busy as a bee'.

The loss of a single forager is not very costly for a large honey bee colony and most foragers eventually expire out in the field.  However, as I'll show in a follow-up post, some other bee species are much more careful about what flowers they approach.

It's a spider eat spider world

Sometimes I find that I am not alone in my search for female crab spiders.  Male crab spiders are also roaming from flower to flower to find the ones where females sit in ambush.  In fact, twice --that I noticed-- male Misumena vatia climbed up onto me, as if they also recognized our common goal.  (To put it mildly, I do not appreciate this behavior; nevertheless, I did manage to remove the spiders gently in both cases.)

Like females, male crab spiders will hunt on flowers (see this post).  However, when seeking out a mate, male crab spiders may no longer be a threat to other flower visitors.  The male Misumena vatia in the pictures below stepped right over a foraging bee and continued on its way.

A male Misumena vatia walks right over a small bee.

In contrast, female crab spiders are unlikely to pass up a chance for a meal -- even if that meal is the male who just came to mate.

A female Mecaphesa sp. eats what looks like a male Mecaphesa sp.

Going to great lengths for a drink of nectar

The characteristics of a flower often provide clues about its pollinators.  Certain flower sizes, shapes, colors, scents and rewards are grouped into "pollination syndromes" associated with specific groups of pollinators. For example, bees often prefer to visit blue and yellow flowers with an open structure that allows easy access to nectar and pollen.

A honey bee (Apis mellifera) drinks nectar from an open flower.

In comparison, red flowers with a long, tubular structure are commonly associated with hummingbird pollination.  These flowers have nectar deep inside that hummingbirds can reach with their long bills and tongues.  For illustration, I have dissected a trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) flower.

Some nectar is visible near the base, at least 3/4 of the way down the tube of the flower.

However, bees are not discouraged just because a flower belongs to the "wrong" pollination syndrome.  Both honey bees and bumble bees can squeeze their way into trumpet honeysuckle flowers, sometimes disappearing nearly entirely from view in their efforts to reach the nectar. 

A honey bee (Apis mellifera) attempts to reach the nectar at the base of a trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) flower.

A bumble bee (Bombus sp.) forces its way up the tube of a trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) flower.