Heidi and Hans-Jürgen Koch

Marked Buff-tailed Bumblebee Drinking, 2016

Close-up photograph

Lifeform Photography
Goosefeld, Germany

This photograph features a marked buff-tailed bumblebee or large earth bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, drinking sugar liquid from a blossom dummy. The hand-made blossom dummy consists of blue foam rubber with orange-colored feathers and a piece of a pipette tip as a nectar tube. Researchers were exploring innate and learned blossom recognition in bumblebees. The basic research includes pollen signals, blossom recognition, and visual orientation of flower visitors. The work is part of the Institute of Sensory Ecology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, in Düsseldorf, Germany.