Wild Bumblebees Shift Diets With the Seasons
Researchers from Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden studied eight wild bumblebee species in Colorado over eight years. They found that tongue length affected which flowers the bees preferred for pollen, and that the bees changed their diets through the seasons while balancing proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
Context
Context: Bumblebees are important pollinators for crops and wild plants, so knowing what they eat helps scientists judge how habitat loss and shifting flowering seasons could affect them. Long-term field studies like this one are rare and valuable.
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