Bees leave smelly footprints on flowers which help them stay away from ones they’ve already visited and find better food sources.
Scientists from the University of Bristol found that bumblebees can differentiate between scents left from different bees, and use them to stay away from flowers that have already been mined, so won’t offer them substantial nutrients.
The markers also stop them wasting time on flowers that they’ve already visited themselves.
Nice flower, bumblebee. High-five!
The scent-marks seem to identify bees in a similar way to fingerprints, and they’re able to tell the difference between their own markings, those of sisters from their hive and total strangers.
To prove this, scientists presented bumblebees with fake flowers that other bees had already visited, that were also either rewarding or unrewarding in terms of how much sugar they contained.
The bumblebees tested were able to tell the difference between the flowers because of the specifically scented substances.
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Richard Pearce, who helped lead the study, said: “This is the first time it has been shown that bumblebees can tell the difference between their scent and the scent of their family members.
“These impressive abilities allow them to be cleverer in their search for food, which will help them to be more successful.”
Their paper is published in Scientific Reports.
