Kama Sutra for bees: knees are the main thing

Bee females are very fastidious as for sex partners. They prefer only that ones who produce the “correct” smell. Scientists of Bonn Agricultural Zoology University found out that bee males have literally to push their females under their noses: gland on the females legs serve as a kind of spray for this perfume. There is no place in bee sexual act for special sensibility: the male attacks the female, sticks into her moustache with his jaws, closes her eye with his middle legs and makes her raise its stomach. Though only the female decides with whom she will sleep. Everything depends of the smell produced by males. According to professor Dieter Wittman, smells help the female to learn whether she is the male’s relative or not and to avoid incest. If the male manages to attract a female, he clutches at her neck and sqeezes her little moustache with his powerful jaws. At that time, the female’s moustache lie upon the male’s forelegs. The forelegs have a mysterious construction. One of the leg is much bigger and has a scoop-like prominence. Wittman found out, that not long before copulation, the female’s moustache get to the scoop’s rim which is covered with numerous little holes, outlets of aromatic glands. At the same time, the male places his forelegs (which are partly transparent) on the female’ eyes, while creating a chiaroscuro play effect. While the male spreads his smell, the female can compare the smell around her and the smell produced by the male. According to the scientist, other kinds of bee have the same mechanism, and wasps, too. Some kinds of bee females can agree to sex only if they are influenced by certain combination of smell, light and soft stroking: bee males’ legs are covered with hundreds of little hairs which can tenderly massage the females’ little moustache.