The Preferences of Honeybees for Solutions of Various Sugars Which Occur in Nectar

Abstract

1. In field and in laboratory experiments bees were offered equal volumes of sugar solutions, of different composition but the same total concentration. It was found that sugars which occur in nectar were not equally attractive to bees.

2. Consistent preferences were shown for solutions of single sugars in the following descending order: sucrose, glucose, maltose, fructose.

3. The acceptances of some mixtures differed from those predicted on the basis of an additive effect of the constituent sugars. Anomalous high preferences were shown for sucrose-glucose-fructose solutions.

4. The concentration of the solution appeared to influence the observed preferences, the relative acceptances of solutions at normal threshold level differing from those at higher levels in the series of laboratory experiments.

5. No direct relationship appeared to exist between the chemical constitution of the sugars offered and their acceptance by bees; and no evidence was found to explain the observed differences in preferences for solutions of either single or mixed sugars.

6. Attention is drawn to the possible biological significance of such selective responses by bees--it appears that the sugar composition of nectar may be a contributory factor influencing the visits of bees to flowers.