Bees Detect Flowers' Electric Signals

As bees fly, friction gives them a positive electrostatic charge, while grounded flowers usually carry a slight negative charge. This difference pulls negatively charged pollen onto the bee, and some positively charged pollen later leaps from the bee to another flower's pistil. Each visit depletes some negative charge from the flower, so other bees can tell which blooms have been stripped of pollen and nectar recently, for as long as 100 seconds.

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