Showing posts with label Whitney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whitney. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2009

Getting a grip: ‘Velcro’-like structure helps bees stick to flowers


A paper by Heather M. Whitney, Lars Chittka, Toby J.A. Bruce and Beverley J. Glover in Current Biology shows that bumblebees can recognise the texture of petal surfaces by touch alone. More importantly, they choose to land on petals with conical cells that make it easier to grip, rather than on flat, smooth surfaces.

Read the press release at University of Cambridge, or the article at Current Biology.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Floral Iridescence, Produced by Diffractive Optics, Acts As a Cue for Animal Pollinators

Heather Whitney and Beverley Glover have been published in Science: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1166256.

News report in The Daily Telegraph.

News report in The University of Cambridge.

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Some bumblebees like it hot

Some bumblebees like it hot
Bumblebees prefer warmer flowers and can learn to use colour to predict floral temperature before landing, a new study reports.