Honey crop (Module 2)

[gavin]

Nectar going from the crop to the ventriculus is filtered - I understand that.

No, nectar doesn't normally go from the crop to the ventriculus, at least not in quantity. The proventriculus sticks out into the crop or honey stomach. It manages to filter particles, gather them up, and pass them in a lump down into the ventriculus without there being a significant flow of nectar in that direction. The nectar remaining in the crop gets depleted of particles.

I'm now also curious what is partially wrong and partially right in the first sentence.

Which was:
(A fascinating feature of the proventriculus is that its four lips sieve out pollen, and even some bacteria and spores, allowing filtered nectar to pass through into the ventriculus.)

*Some* might make that jouney but most doesn't. The filtered nectar stays in the crop until the bee is ready to regurgitate, the solid matter heads down the digester. So the first sentence is right about the 4 lips filtering out particles, but wrong that a passage of nectar to the ventriculus is involved.

Do have a go at the Bailey paper mentioned above. Access to the full PDF is free.

[Mellifera Crofter]

...The nectar remaining in the crop gets depleted of particles. ...

Thank you Gavin - at last, the penny's dropped! That explains nicely why the next bee gets partially filtered nectar. Thanks.

I did read the paper, Gavin, and understood about the forming of boluses and so on - but I did make this mistake in thinking the nectar must pass through the proventriculus to get filtered. I also mistakenly thought it only starts working (allowing nectar to pass through to the ventriculus) when the bee is hungry and needs to digest some food.

Thanks,
Kitta

[gavin]

Here's a more popular article:

http://livingwithinsects.wordpress.c...ticle-remover/

Imagine the crop is a small rock pool. There's the stump of a piece of seaweed sticking out which has four large barnacles on the end. The barnacles will filter out particles in the small rock pool. Easy!



You'd also have to imagine that the rear ends of the barnacles were connected to an insect gut system to make this work, but that's the principle.

[gavin]

Ah! Too late. Maybe that will help someone else thinking about this.

G.

[gavin]

That's the second time I've posted a video with barnacles on SBAi. Anyone remember the first?

[Mellifera Crofter]

Excellent! Thanks for the barnacle video! Kitta

[Mellifera Crofter]

... and thanks for the easy-to-read article, Gavin. It's good.

PS: No - I haven't seen the video before ...

[gavin]

Perhaps some old threads are best left to die .... but here it is. Different video and indeed mostly a different filter feeder but barnacles do feature near the end.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/sh...r-puzzle/page8

[Mellifera Crofter]

The thread was far above my head first time round, Gavin, and still is - so I'm leaving it well alone. But the clip provided a happy diversion from work. Thanks!