Other commonly selected flowers included thickstem asters and Ryderberg’s penstemon, a flower in the snapdragon family. urticifolia, a flowering plant in the mint family, was the plant most strongly selected by three of five bumble bee species surveyed. Garden tiger moth or great tiger moth Butterfly, night butterfly Shutterstock “Often studies will use the proportion of captures on a plant species alone to determine which plants are most important to bees.” “It’s important to consider the availability of plants when determining what’s selected for by bees,” Cole said. Although they captured bees on more than 100 plant species, just 14 of them were chosen the most.Įach bumble bee species selected a different group of flowers, even though the bees were foraging across the same plots. The authors assessed the five most abundant bumble bee species’ plant selection by comparing the plants they used to what was available. “Determining bumble bee species’ plant selection is important for retaining and promoting high quality plant resources that will help populations persist,” the authors said. Making sure the two are in sync is important, as our food supply depends on the timing of phenological events. Phenology is defined by how plants and animals function in their environments in different seasons. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/Getty Imagesīees are dying - what can we do about it? President Barack Obama's administration announced May 19, that the government would provide money for more bee habitat as well as research into ways to protect bees from disease and pesticides to reduce the honeybee colony losses that have reached alarming rates. HOMESTEAD, FL - MAY 19: Honeybees are seen at the J & P Apiary and Gentzel's Bees, Honey and Pollination Company on in Homestead, Florida. Jerry Cole, lead author of the research and biologist at the Institute for Bird Populations in California, said there are a few potential reasons behind the declines: competition with other insect species, transfer of parasites from honey bees to bumble bees, loss of floral resources, or a mismatch between the phenology of plant species and the phenology of bumble bee species. Between April 2015 and April 2016, beekeepers in the US lost 44% of their colonies. However, species of North American bumble bees have significantly declined in population in recent decades. Many plants rely on bees as natural pollinators to produce some of nature’s most nutritious foods. Seven simple things you can do to save the bees on National Honeybee Day Caption: Computer scientists and engineers at the University of Washington have created a sensor package that is small enough to ride aboard a bumblebee.Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington Mark Stone/University of Washington/Mark Stone/University of Washington
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