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Posts Tagged: pollinia
Hey, Wait, Take Me With You!
Hey, wait, take me with you! No, leave me alone! Let me go! Have you ever seen insects struggling to free themselves from the reproductive chamber...
A honey bee frantically struggles to escape from a reproductive chamber of a milkweed blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
Right, left, up and down, the honey bee tries to free herself from the milkweed "floral trap." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This honey bee finally managed to free herself and then returned to forage for more nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This honey bee couldn't free herself from the reproductive chamber of the milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey
Milkweed: A Honey Bee's Floral Trap
It is not a "pretty sight," as Ernest Hemingway might have said, to see a honey bee stuck like glue--nature's "gorilla glue?"-in the reproductive...
A honey bee stuck in milkweed pollinia. This plant is the narrowleaf milkweed,Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee struggles to free herself from the sticky nectar trough of a milkweed plant, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Almost free! A honey bee works to free herself from the sticky nectar trough of a milkweed plant, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Death trap: This bee couldn't free herself from the sticky milkweed blossom of a Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollinia: Like Having Gum on Your Shoes
If you've ever stepped in sticky gum, it's similar to what happens when an insect steps into milkweed pollinia. Take the wasps visiting the...
This wasp, a species of Podalonia, flies off a tropical milkweed at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden with a load of pollinia, a packet of sticky golden pollen grains. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Podalonia wasp nectars on tropical milkweed at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A wasp foraging upside down on tropical milkweed at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Off to another tropical milkweed--and off packing pollinia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Note the gold, wishboned-shaped pollinia on the honey bee's feet as she heads for more showy milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Saga of the Milkweed, Bee and Caterpillar
So here's this tattered old worker bee seeking some nectar from the broadleaf milkweed, Asclepias speciosa. She looks as if she's not only been...
A tattered honey bee seeking nectar from a milkweed blossom encounters a monarch caterpillar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
"Well, hello, there!" The antennae of the bee and monarch caterpillar touch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee gets stuck in the sticky pollinia of the milkweed as a monarch caterpillar keeps munching away. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee carries the sticky winged pollen on her leg as she buzzes off. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
To Kill a Honey Bee
How times change with the advancement of knowledge. It's long been known that when honey bees—as well as other insects—get trapped in...
Honey bee (at right) perished when her foot got caught in the pollinia and she was unable to free herself. At left is a foraging bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee flies off with pollinia on her leg. She returned to gather more nectar from the milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
