BEES ARE MORE CLEVER THAN WE THOUGHT
How do bumblebees know how to find the best flowers? Up until recently, it was thought that bees homed in on flowers based on color and shape. We also know that bees see colors differently than humans do, as they can’t see the color red and they can see ultraviolet wavelengths. But a new study shows that bumblebees also identify flowers and are guided to their pollen by scent.
A team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Bristol School of Biological Sciences found that bees recognize and learn specific patterns of scent producing flower cells. And, bees use this information to distinguish between flowers.
The research team members, David A. Lawson, Lars Chittka, Heather M. Whitney, Sean A. Rands, observed that when bees land at the edge of a flower, they are guided by lines of scent-producing cells that guide them towards the pollen and nectar at the center.
"If you look at a flower with a microscope, you can often see that the cells that produce the flower's scent are arranged in patterns," said Lawson. "By creating artificial flowers that have identical scents arranged in different patterns, we are able to show that this patterning might be a signal to a bee.
Scientists found that once bees learned the scent pattern, they preferred to visit other flowers with the same visual pattern even if the flowers were unscented, indicating that they used the acquired knowledge to make choices -- they exhibited the ability to move knowledge between the senses of sight and scent.
"Being able to mentally switch between different senses is something we take for granted, but it's exciting that a small animal like a bee is also able to do something this abstract," Lawson said.
Chittka added: "We already knew that bees were clever, but we were really surprised by the fact that bees could learn invisible patterns on flowers - patterns that were just made of scent.”
"The scent glands on our flowers were either arranged in a circle or a cross, and bees had to figure out these patterns by using their feelers,” Chittka explained. “But the most exciting finding was that, if these patterns are suddenly made visible by the experimenter, bees can instantly recognise the image that formerly was just an ephemeral pattern of volatiles in the air."
The study is part of ongoing research at the University of Bristol into different ways that flowers communicate with their pollinators. And it now shows this communication includes color, shape, texture, and smell. In essence, flowers act as multisensory billboards to pollinators.
Around 75% of all food grown on the planet originates with flowers which rely on pollination by bees and other animals. But global bee population levels are declining as habitat loss and pesticide use continue at a breakneck pace. Nearly a quarter of all bee species are now at risk of extinction.
Growing concern for the future of bees and other pollinating insects led the EU to vote for a permanent ban on pesticides linked to their decline.
For further information about bees sensory perceptions, check out the publication: ‘Bumblebees distinguish floral scent patterns, and can transfer these to corresponding visual patterns.’
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