Buzzing bees grab and go while leisurely hoverflies lunch

Take a walk around the Scottish Highlands in summer and you’ll be wowed by the wildflowers that light up the landscape. Bees and hoverflies are also attracted by the flowers, to collect pollen. But these two groups of buzzing insects use different behaviours to get to this protein-rich food source. Bees often buzz the pollen out of the flower, by clamping their mouthparts onto the anther and speedily shaking it with their vibrations. Buzzing pollination has evolved 40 times in over half of the 20,000 bee species, yet just one species of hoverfly is known to buzz flowers; instead, the rest silently and slowly rub the pollen off with their legs and body.