Even honeybees love coffee!

London: If you thought only humans can get addicted to coffee, think again. New research reveals even honeybees find caffeinated beverages, err, nectar, irresistible!

A new study found that bees may select caffeinated nectar over an uncaffeinated, though otherwise equal-quality alternative.

So, plants may be lacing their nectar with caffeine as a way to pass off cheaper goods, it said."The effect of caffeine is akin to drugging,

where the honey bees are tricked into valuing the forage as higher quality than it really is," explained researcher Roger Schurch.

The researchers tested bees' responses to a sucrose solution with field-realistic doses of caffeine or without.

They found that the caffeine caused honeybees to forage more and to direct their friends to the caffeinated forage more frequently with waggle dances.

Bees were more persistent about returning to sites where they had previously found caffeinated nectar, even after the feeder had run dry.