Bees may have evolved to be "cleverer" in the
mornings to help them forage
The earliest rising bee catches the best flower and
ultimately the best meal, according to research.
A study has found that bees are better at learning new
odours in the morning.
This early brain power may have evolved to help the
insects sniff out flowering plants and forage for nectar more efficiently.
An experiment in which a team tested more than 1,000
bees is described in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.
Previous research has shown that most flowers
accumulate their nectar during the morning, so this would be the period during
which learning many new odours would be most useful to the bees.
The process of memorising the new odours released by
flowers is very energy-intensive for the bees' brains, so being a little
"less clever" later in the day could help the insects to conserve
that energy.
To study the bees' ability to learn, the scientists
captured 1,000 forager honeybees (Apis mellifera). They trained groups of the
insects at different times of the day to associate a new odour with a food
reward.
The team, led by Professor Giovanni Galizia from the
The "correct" response to a smell was for the
bee to extend its proboscis—the long appendage many pollinating insects use to
draw nectar from flowers.
When the bees were trained early in the morning, they
were much better at remembering which odours meant that they would receive a
reward of sugary nectar.
Much earlier research had already established that
bees' behaviour is very dependent upon the time of day. As far back as 1960,
one researcher actually flew a group of bees from
But this, the researchers say, is the first study to
show that bees are better able to learn in the morning.
In their journal article, the team wrote that this
effect was probably a result of bees and the flowers they pollinate
"co-evolving".
"It might be evolutionarily advantageous to be the
'early bee' and to 'catch' the flower in order to out-compete possible
competitors such as butterflies, flies and [bees from] other hives," the
researchers wrote.
Dr Nigel Raine, a researcher from Royal Holloway,
"Not only do bees pollinate many crops we depend
upon for food, but they also pollinate wild flowers which helps to maintain the
beauty and diversity of the landscape in which we live," he told BBC News.
"These are key reasons why we need to increase our
understanding of bee behaviour."
8 August 2010 Science Reporter, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10892913