What looks like an hourglass-shaped paint splotch on the thorax of some bees is actually pollen. In the past, I often saw these stripes — usually in yellow — and wondered what they were. The bees look like they squeezed through someone’s freshly painted woodenware.
But according to Rosanna Mattingly in her fascinating book, Honey-Maker, the design occurs when pollen-covered bees groom. The honey bee uses her two midlegs to clean pollen from her forelegs and the back of her thorax. However, there’s a place she can’t quite reach, right down the middle of her back.
She swipes each side of her thorax, removing the pollen in an arc, much like the sweep of a wiper blade on a car. The hourglass design remains after she’s reached as far as she can on each side.
From the comments below, I learned a word for these unreachable places. According to Wikipedia, the acnestis lies between the shoulders and the lower back of an animal, a place out of reach for scratching (and grooming).
Rusty
Honey Bee Suite
About Me
I backed my love of bee science with a bachelor’s degree in Agronomic Crops and a master’s in Environmental Studies. I write extensively about bees, including a current column in American Bee Journal and past columns in Two Million Blossoms and Bee Craft. I’ve endured multiple courses in melittology and made extensive identifications of North American bees for iNaturalist and other organizations. My master beekeeper certificate issued from U Montana. I’m also an English nerd. More here.
As a new beekeeper, you can imagine what thoughts I had when I witnessed these stripes on my bees this past fall! First I thought someone else’s colony was invading—thinking someone “painted” those stripes… yeah, right!
After I posted the question to those at the Vermont Beekeepers Association, I was told a lot of “newbees” have the same concern. It was due to the pollen of the jewelweed, now in bloom!
(That’s a great photo, too, showing the stripe!)
I took your advice for winter reading and got a copy of Rosanna L. Mattingly’s book Honey Maker. It is a really good book and I will recommend it to other beekeeping friends. I also recommend your site, by the way. Many thanks!
Teri
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have seen this many times and worried it was a sign of a brewing problem in the hive. You have a knack for adddressing practical beekeeping issues as well as pollinator esoterica!
Well, I thinks someone needs to tell those drones to clean “those girls” (sorry) backs while they are just standing around waiting their turn.
This often happens with Himalayan Balsam in the UK. I like to call them ‘badger stripes’. Some people worry that their bees are going mouldy!
I have a video of one of our survivor colonies with this pollen stripe…can send it if you would like.
Bill, I would love to see it.
Here is the YouTube link…http://youtu.be/2mee_ES2EfM
Wow, yours really do look painted. But right at the end you can see some with pollen baskets loaded with the exact shade of white. Very cool!
Here is another link to our double queen colony overwintering together this year. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?
fbid=532281313551840&set=pb.172071512906157.
-2207520000.1393592736.&type=3&theater….it’s posted to Facebook…
That area actually has a name. It is called the acnestis. It’s the area that an animal cannot reach on their body. Think about it in terms of cows and cats. Cows have a really large one, but flexible cats probably don’t.
Adam,
I have a question. All the definitions I find for “acnestis” say it is the part of any animal where it can’t reach to scratch; in fact, that is the derivation of the word. Is it used to describe the area where you can’t groom as well? It’s a fine point, I know, but I don’t want to end up using it the wrong way.
Scratch, groom, rub, reach… I didn’t really see much of a difference. It doesn’t really matter to me what the animals reason for reaching for that spot, its just the spot that it can’t reach. Maybe it is just for scratching, but it’s still an interesting that somebody would come up with a name for that spot. That was one of the words on “Says Who” on NPR a couple years ago. It just stuck with me.
Adam,
Okay, I’m sold. I just love a really cool word! Thanks for informing me.
That is really cool. I have yet to see that in my own hives but it is nice to know about so I don’t freak out when I do! Thanks for sharing!
Mark,
I have to admit I freaked out the first time I saw it.
I thought I had some strain of mutant bees when I first noticed this a couple years ago. Here’s a cropped in video shot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoS_0X-xjqI#t=27
I notice it in the fall when the bees collect white pollen from Morning Glory flowers. I suppose it happens during other times of the year, but not as noticeable with non-white pollen.
Great video, Phillip. The music says it all.
Thank you so much for the picture of the bees with the stripe or hourglass on their thorax and the explanation for it. I have seen my bees coming in and out with it for the past week now and have been trying to find out what it was! Being a new beekeeper, I feared and imagined some interesting possibilities of what it may be. Delighted to find it was none of those. Thanks again