Bumblebees Follow Leaders in New Territory

Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London have shed light on how bumblebees select flowers. In a lab experiment, bees were given choices of artificial flowers. When confronted with unfamiliar choices, the insects preferred to feed from flowers where another bee was already collecting rather than to experiment on their own. When visiting familiar flower species, the bees made their own selections regardless of others' presence.

Link: Bumblebees copy one another when contending with unfamiliar flowers
from EurekAlert

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:13 PM on June 24, 2005

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