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(Transportation-News.com, April 01, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA -- In a new study, honeybees receive a shot of caffeine from particular flowers when they are pollinating, which perks their memories.
The caffeine boost spurs them to return to the same plant, boosting its prospects for pollination and the future of plant species.
It is likely no surprise that one of the flowers is the coffee plant, with its nectar offering about as much caffeine concentration for the bee as would be found in a cup of coffee, according to researchers.
Perhaps more surprising is citrus plants which also serve caffeine, though it appears to be in lower concentrations. It is found within the nectar of orange and grapefruit blossoms thus far through testing. The caffeine helps the bee to remember that the flower, associated through scent, promises a tasty payoff, according to researchers.
The researchers could tell the caffeine was boosting the bees memory through experiments that utilized lab tools rather than flowers. The team trained individual bees to expect a sugary drink that smelled a certain floral scent. Some bees were given nectar-like concentrations of caffeine, while others did not.
After a day or two, the bees were then exposed to the same scents and the researchers noted whether the bees extended their feeding tubes in response. Through the research it was clear that the bees who had caffeine given to them were more likely to remember. They responded with three times greater likelihood.
Bees cannot taste caffeine at the levels that are found within he nectar, but researchers found it affects particular brain cells connected to memory.
The work was handled by Geraldine Wright of Newcastle University in England along with her coauthors.
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Source: EmailWire.Com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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