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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