Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Suck it, Apis Mellifera!



Sure, owning an apiary of traditional European honeybees carries a bit of panache, but anyone with access to top bar hive diagrams could do that. You want to redefine your social status with your insect legion, so take the road less travelled: keep bees that drink human tears.

...workers drank lachrymation (tears) from human eyes in more than 262 naturally-occurred cases at 10 sites in N and S Thailand during all months of the year. A few visits were also seen to eyes of zebu and dog, indicating a probable broad mammalian host range. On man the bees were relatively gentle visitors, mostly landing on the lower eyelashes from where they imbibed tears for 0.5-2.5 min, often singly but occasionally in congregations of 5-7 specimens per eye.

Via Boingboing.net

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