In my experience as a beekeeper, I can't remember having seen bees flying after dark, but I can imagine one circumstance in which they might. If for some reason they can't find their way back to the hive (they get caught in bad weather and have to take shelter till after sundown, they get blown off course, the beekeeper moves the hive, etc.), and if by chance they happen to find themselves near an artificial light, they may head for it in a state of navigational confusion. Might some such situation apply in the cases you observed?
Martin M. Meiss 2011/5/29 Aaron T. Dossey <bugoc...@gmail.com> > This year for the first time I have noticed several honeybees flying at > lights at night just like scarabs or the hundreds of other insects that are > attracted to them. I first saw several honeybees running at the rather dim > light on the side of the USDA greenhouse here in Gainesville, FL almost > every night I have gone to check on my plants and psyllids. The other > experience I had recently has been several of the nights I have gone down to > the gas station at Micanopy to find scarabs and moths for a couple of other > projects I have going. At that location, there was just one bee but it was > very aggressively flying at the wall over and over again - falling down, and > then flying back at the wall. A couple of times when I approached the wall > to photograph a moth, the bee seemed to come after me - but I made a quick > enough escape so I am not sure. Actually, a few nights ago it did land on > my thumb (the thumb having not been near the wall at the time, about 3 feet > away) and appeared interested in stinging, but again I evaded attack. > > Has anyone seen this kind of behavior in honeybees? Is this something > that's increased over time, as I have been going to a LOT of lights for > insects at night for many years (for almost 10 years here in the Gainesville > area, including the Micanopy light) but have never seen a single honeybee at > one until this year. > > -- > Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D. > Biochemistry and Molecular Biology >
