Its official - Honeybees have smelly feet.

It has been known for some time that bees scent-mark flowers that they've visited using special glands on their feet, but research at Southampton University shows that this behaviour is more complex than anyone had supposed.

Bumblebees and honeybees scent-mark floweres with a mutually repellent chemical, but the effect wears off after a day. Both kinds of bees also use a short term chemical to mark flowers they've visited, which wears off after about 40 minutes, just long enough for the nectar supply to be replenished and make another visit worthwhile.

Honeybees, but not bumblebees, also label productive flowers with another longer-lasting scent, so they can find and revisit them the next day.