Study Discovers that Bumble Bees Have Useful Memories To Find Flowers Options

New fascinating research revealed that bumble bees have useful memories to remember flowers options, noting that they only have very basic ranking memories.

Bumble bees are amazing creatures. They make the ecosystem and plant healthier, especially in the United States. According to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), bumble bees also significantly pollinate plants, flowers, and crops.

According to the research, the researchers said that bumble bees could retain basic ranking memories of the flowers, based on the experiments, noting that they can't retain memories of how sweet the flowers they interacted with. Still, they only remembered which flower was sweeter.

The new research is in the ELife journal. It is also available to read on the Phys.org website.

Bumble Bees

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According to the article, co-lead author Ms. Yonghe Zhou said that bumble bees could find the most profitable flowers, although they appear to have poor memories.

During the experiment, the scientists unveiled that the bumble bees could keep memories of flowers being better or worse, noting that bumble bees seem only to remember how sweet the flower in a few minutes.

Senior author Prof. Fei Peng explained that bumble bees could have evolved to mostly consume flower nectar, and there was no need for bumble bees to remember the flower's details. Peng is also at Southern Medical University in China.

On the other hand, co-lead author Ms. Yonghe Zhou said that the research results showed how bumble bees could use information regarding options, unlike birds or humans. Zhou is also a Ph.D. student at the Queen Mary University of London.

What is amazing about bumble bees is that they socialize in the hives, which have over 50 to 500 individuals. The hive becomes their shelter and an important place for their young.

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The National Wildlife Federation explained that bumble bees are also threatened. Reports reveal that bumble bee species started to decline, especially the western bumble bee Franklin's bumble bee.

NWF noted that the threats that bumble bee species have encountered include the use of pesticides, habitat destruction, and climate change. Bumble bee conservation is also important because they contribute to pollination.

According to the study, the researchers conducted experiments to understand the bumble bees' behavior. The researchers noted that bumble bees were trained on the first two flowers, which one flower was sweeter.

Then, the researchers showed the third and fourth flowers, and the third one was sweeter. The researchers then observed the options of bumble bees for flowers they hadn't interacted.

Wild Bees in Woodland Treetops

In the previous report, the researchers discovered that a community of wild bees managed to be active on the woodland treetop even though the shaded woodlands are considered inefficient and poor for wild bees. The research observed 15 woodland sites to look into the bee's activities.

The high activity of bees in the woodland canopies and understory could help further researchers.