[Freddy]

NEWS ITEM

Bumblebees Recognize People
By Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

Dec. 13, 2005 ?Don't be too proud of never forgetting a face: It turns out even a humble bumblebee can distinguish and recall different human faces, say researchers who have conducted experiments on the surprisingly canny insects.

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[Art]

Interesting article Freedy.

Guess I'll have to BEE careful around my friend's apiary!

[Maviarab]

I know they tell you what they did, but how the hell was that experiment conducted exactly?

How exactly did they "remember" ? lol

[Freddy]

Good question, how did they do that ?  I saw something about the way insects see a long time ago in a science mag and still can't figure out how they went about doing it.  On other mysteries though, was BUZZ Aldrin really the second man on the moon?

ho ho ho

[Art]

AND...did Adam ANT really do a song called Love BITES??!!!

[Maviarab]

I think you 2 are talkin a load of ol bees wax hehe

[FuzzieDice]

lol Sounds like a lot of folks BEE BUSY for the holidays coming up with these cute puns.

[Dante]

Bumble-bees cant recognize faces, they see very odd flowers, but not faces.

It's very much like being put in front of identical chairs, then given a reward to recognize them again, when all you know is that one's got a scratch...you get the idea...

[Freddy]

Probably very true.  The last I heard, bees respond to patterns in the flower - kind of like seeing landing strips.  For something so highly evolved in one task, it seems ridiculess that a bee would also (and for no reason) be profficient in telling one face from another.

[Maviarab]

Also considering their lifespan too, it seems all the more remarkable/implausable.

I can see from genetics/evolving they can differentiate between flowers etc...but as you say, faces? not so sure.

[Dante]

Unless, of course, they are evoloving to start delivering the honey straight to your door....