SNHS Biology Blog 8: Bees, UV, and Electrostatic Fields

Hellie Chen

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How do bees find flowers on your second floor window sill? There are a combination of reasons for why they can, almost all of which are attributed to the synergism between bees and flowers, for a need for nectar and of pollination. Bee-flower interactions are heavily based on senses such as vision, olfactory, humidity sensing, touch, and electrostatic fields.

The co-evolution of bees and flowers that enables pollination is based on these sensory cues; flowers have evolved to cater to a bee’s skillset. For example, they’ll often give up energy from photosynthesis to create nectar as a reward for bees (and subsequently the pollination they help with) instead of for other needs. Another example is that flowers have developed special UV patterns as a branding tool to help bees distinguish different types of flowers from another, a way to advertise themselves.

And why do bees see UV? It’s because bees approximately see wavelengths from approximately 300-650 nm, that comprises of the visible light spectrum sans red and of the ultraviolet spectrum. This, along with olfactory sensory from smell receptors, helps bees find and distinguish different types of flowers from one another, but how do they even find those flowers?

Bees usually roam around 1-2 miles from their hive in search of nectar to sustain their hive. Yet oftentimes, you’ll find bees up by a window sill dancing on your potted flower a story up. It has been established that bees can see ultraviolet radiation and utilise smell receptors to distinguish and find flowers from a short distance, but electrostatic sensitivity is what helps bees find flowers from further away. Bees, as a result of friction from flying in the air and of friction from body parts, are positively charged, Along with the fact that flowers are negatively charged, bees use antennae or sensitive hairs on the body to help locate these charged flowers.

In addition, the use of electrostatic fields has been found to help the pollination process. As bees are positively charged and flowers are negatively charged, the pollen on flowers is subsequently negatively charged as well. This results in an additional binding of pollen to the small hairs on a bee which allow the pollen to be carried to other flowers.

This pollination lends itself to an immense role in our everyday lives. From the presence of trees and fruits like apples, peaches, apricots, strawberries to everyday flowers we see in life, without bees, our lives would be a lot less colorful, a lot less bee-autiful.