Crook, County Durham: By chewing their way directly into the nectaries of flowers, the thieving insects circumvent the laborious pollination mechanism
The first hint that there were thieves in the garden appeared in the columbines. This plant’s common name is derived from the Latin columba, a dove, because its quintet of florets is reminiscent of an inward-facing circle of doves, with petals forming their wings and long nectar spurs resembling the birds’ necks and bowed heads.
Holes had been chewed in every head. The culprits were a few nectar-robbing bumblebees. They should pollinate the flowers by hanging awkwardly underneath, showered with pollen while probing upwards into the nectar spurs with their long tongues. These ones had devised an easier route to a reward, by chewing a feeding hole in the top of each nectary: now they could forage 10 times faster.
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