Bees like it hot
2006-08-03 06:56
London - Bumblebees like it hot and learn
to use the colour of plants to select blooms with the warmest
nectar, scientists said on Wednesday.
Through trial and error, bumblebees learn which flowers are
the hot spots which offer an additional reward in the form of
heat or energy for the pollinating insects.
When researchers at Queen Mary, University of London used
four different coloured artificial flowers with varying
temperatures, the majority of the bees selected the darker
coloured, warmer flowers.
Even when the colours and temperatures were switched, the
bees still preferred the warmer blooms.
"What the bees appear to be doing is a bit like us drinking
a hot drink on a cold day. If you need to warm up, you can
produce your own heat, at the expense of some of your energy
reserves - or you can consume a warm drink, and save on
investing in your own energy," said Professor Lars Chittka, who
headed the research team.
"The interesting thing is that bees don't just prefer the
warmer drinks - they learn to predict the flower temperature
from the flower colour," he added in the statement.
Chittka and his team believe the findings, which are
reported in the journal Nature, show that flower temperature
offers an additional reward for the bees.
"We conclude that the bees preferred to land on the warmer
flowers, even though the similarly coloured alternative
contained the same nutritional reward," the researchers said in
the journal.