All of the bees in a single hive collect nectar from blossoms of a single species. This behavior is termed “flower fidelity” and allows the production of “single malt” honeys such as orange blossom and blueberry.
Question one is what underlying mechanism allows these simple creatures to be so discerning en masse (I know bees dance when they return to the hive to give the coordinates of fertile hunting grounds, but how would the flower species be communicated–odor?)?
Question two is what advantage do they derive (if any) from having developed such a complex behavior?
I’m just an amateur botanist, but, the symbiosis between bees and flowering plants offer these advantages:
For plants; to create an allure to a specific pollinator, within species boundaries, affords the best means of procreation.
For bees; to easily recognize a food source, if it is a large stand of plants; it’s much less work in scouting, communicating the whereabouts, and harvesting. Flowers are all about pollinators: from color, landing zones and scent. They are designed to attract the insects that tickle their nethers and further their floriferousness. The better the “airport”, the better the seeds.
A swell book on seeing plants from a plant’s eye view is The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan. It’s mostly about plants that have held a particular human interest: apples, tulips, cannabis, potatoes. But, he does touch on the ability of plants to attract pollinators, and is quite nice in his ability to look at plants as being able to adapt to their own course of evolution, without the pesky apes thumbing in on it.