4 ms·

Proboscis, pollen, and the rapture of interspecies intimacy

32 points by dnetesn 3y ago

tigerlily 3y ago
I caught a bumblebee rolling around in a big red rose once. You'd think the creature was normally down to business, flitting from flower to flower, dutifully pollenating. I've no other way to describe it, this one was rolling around in that rose like a wire-haired terrier in stray fish guts.
- gumby 3y ago
  Bees pollinate as a side effect of their travels, which are (from the bee’s PoV), intended to collect the energy-rich pollen so the hive can make food. I assume it was trying to collect as much pollen as possible via its hairy body. This is why those same flowers turn into yummy fruit, so other (like us) will eat them and drop or excrete the seeds elsewhere.
  - ianlevesque 3y ago
    They have also been shown to (probably) play for no purpose at all: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347222002366 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000334722...
    - gumby 3y ago
      Nice!
_a_a_a_ 3y ago
Very blathery, seems to have been written by an artist rather than a scientist. Relevant part is this "One place to start [assisting pollination] is finding opportunities to encourage and facilitate the relationships between plants and their endemic pollinator partners. To that end, The Pollinator Partnership has developed a comprehensive series of free planting guides tailored to the swathe of individual ecoregions found throughout the US and Canada. To access these guides, you simply enter your postal code into their system and it will generate the corresponding document containing specific recommendations and practices to help you support plant-pollinator partnerships in your immediate area."
- firewolf34 3y ago
  While I agree it was likely written by someone with creative tendencies, I quite enjoyed their writing style, it's tone made me smile, appreciate nature a bit, and proceed to the guide. As someone who spends far too much time reading arxiv posts on this site, it is sometimes nice to have a change of pace, furthermore, nearly all of the articles I've seen on this website thus far appear to be well-written.
gumby 3y ago
A whole article on this topic without the word “symbiosis”?

32 points by dnetesn 3y ago

I caught a bumblebee rolling around in a big red rose once. You'd think the creature was normally down to business, flitting from flower to flower, dutifully pollenating. I've no other way to describe it, this one was rolling around in that rose like a wire-haired terrier in stray fish guts.

gumby 3y ago
Bees pollinate as a side effect of their travels, which are (from the bee’s PoV), intended to collect the energy-rich pollen so the hive can make food. I assume it was trying to collect as much pollen as possible via its hairy body. This is why those same flowers turn into yummy fruit, so other (like us) will eat them and drop or excrete the seeds elsewhere.
- ianlevesque 3y ago
  They have also been shown to (probably) play for no purpose at all: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347222002366 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000334722...
  - gumby 3y ago
    Nice!

_a_a_a_ 3y ago

Very blathery, seems to have been written by an artist rather than a scientist. Relevant part is this "One place to start [assisting pollination] is finding opportunities to encourage and facilitate the relationships between plants and their endemic pollinator partners. To that end, The Pollinator Partnership has developed a comprehensive series of free planting guides tailored to the swathe of individual ecoregions found throughout the US and Canada. To access these guides, you simply enter your postal code into their system and it will generate the corresponding document containing specific recommendations and practices to help you support plant-pollinator partnerships in your immediate area."

firewolf34 3y ago
While I agree it was likely written by someone with creative tendencies, I quite enjoyed their writing style, it's tone made me smile, appreciate nature a bit, and proceed to the guide. As someone who spends far too much time reading arxiv posts on this site, it is sometimes nice to have a change of pace, furthermore, nearly all of the articles I've seen on this website thus far appear to be well-written.

gumby 3y ago

A whole article on this topic without the word “symbiosis”?