Beetle larvae trick bees into feeding and sheltering them by smelling like flowers, study finds

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology found that larvae of the European black oil beetle produce floral monoterpenoids, the same compounds that give many flowers their scent, to lure unsuspecting bees.

Once a bee investigates the phantom flower, the larva climbs aboard and rides home to the bee's burrow, where it eats the bee's eggs and pollen stores before developing into an adult beetle. Lab tests with a synthetic version of the scent confirmed wild bees were drawn to it just as they would be to real flowers.

The team says this is the first documented case of an animal chemically hijacking a flower's scent to parasitize another animal, and suspects the trick may be more widespread among insects than currently known, just harder to detect than visual mimicry.

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