Watch the honeybee's expandable mop tongue lop up nectar in slow motion

(Image credit: iStock)

last updated 14 January 2015

Until now, it wasn't clear how the honeybee consumes the flower's surgery fluid. But thanks to professors at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, we can watch a slow motion video that shows the gross science at work:

What we're seeing at the outset of the video in the middle-top of the screen is a tube that the honeybee's mouth creates when the insect wants to drink. Then the tongue, called the glossa, which has active hairs at the end that resemble a mop, extends through the tube and dips into the liquid. The hairs of the glossa snap outward — from the base to the tip — and then flatten, catching the sweet nectar in its bristles. Finally, the bee withdraws its tongue. And this whole process takes only 400 milliseconds. Now, who's thirsty?

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Lauren Hansen produces The Weekâ€™s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.