When I was wandering around my garden one evening I noticed a European honeybee hanging strangely from a lilly-pilly flower. On closer inspection I saw a well-camouflaged spider holding the bee in place and a number of small flies covering its body (see photo). I can understand the spider's role in all this, but what are the flies doing?
• A honeybee will typically visit up to 500 flowers on each nectar-foraging trip. Foraging bees store nectar in a swollen region in the oesophagus called the crop or honey stomach, which can swell with nectar to fill a major proportion of the insect's abdomen.
As the crop fills with nectar, enzymes act on the complex sugars it contains, breaking them down to simpler sugars. On returning to the hive, the bee will regurgitate the contents of its crop for other bees to concentrate and further metabolise, ultimately making ...
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