Trigona Bee Visiting Justicia - Flickr - treegrow

Descrission:

Description: Sendero la Laguna. Gamboa, Colón, Panamá These Trigona bees chewed the tops off the Justicia flowers apparently to get at the pollen. McDade & Kinsman 1980 describe similar behavior of Trigona bees on Aphelandra: "Trigona bees often removed both pollen and nectar in one extended visit. Bees typically settled on the upper corolla lip and chewed through the folded corolla lobes to collect pollen from the concealed anthers, then flew to the base of the flower and chewed holes through the corolla tube to extract nectar. Since the stigma is exserted several mm beyond the anthers, the bees are unlikely to contact the stigma in a pollen-gathering bout and are thus not pollinating. In fact, while in the process of gathering pollen, bees frequently chewed through or severely damaged the style at the level of the anthers, resulting in no chance of seed set from such flowers." McDade, L.A. and Kinsman, S. 1980. The Impact of Floral Parasitism in Two Neotropical Hummingbird-Pollinated Plant Species. Evolution 34(5):944-958. Date: 5 February 2012, 02:43. Source: Trigona Bee Visiting Justicia. Author: Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. Camera location9° 07′ 09.17″ N, 79° 42′ 00.37″ W View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap 9.119215; -79.700102.