THE ANIMAL FILES

Common eastern bumblebee

Bombus impatiens

A bumblebee can revisit flowers along a learned route.

Common eastern bumblebees forage among many flowering plants and nest underground. Workers differ in size and in where they work within the nest. Repeated flower routes, called traplines, connect memory with the cost of collecting food.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Common eastern bumblebee
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gillesgonthier/297487697/ · Commons · CC BY 2.0
Nest
Underground, reached through a tunnel[1]
Routes
Repeated sequences of flower visits[1]
Workers
Size and tasks vary[1]

A route rather than a random search

Foragers can establish repeatable sequences between food sources. Remembering locations reduces repeated searching and can make travel more direct. Routes may remain stable for long periods. This behaviour is called traplining; it concerns a worker’s movement among resources, not a claim that every flower has permanent nectar.[1]

Jobs have a spatial pattern

Smaller workers tend to feed larvae nearer the nest centre, while larger workers more often forage or guard near the periphery. Workers do not distribute themselves randomly. These tendencies help explain division of labour, but should not be read as a rule that any individual can never change task.[1]

Sharing food-related information

Returning foragers can stimulate further foraging, and nestmates use food-associated scent information. This is not the same as assuming the honeybee waggle dance operates in every bee species. Nectar and pollen come from a broad range of flowers, with experience improving collection performance.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Must every bee communicate flower locations with a honeybee-style waggle dance?

No. This profile describes route learning and scent-associated communication in a bumblebee.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why can a familiar route save effort even before a bee reaches a flower?

Reveal the explanation

Remembered locations reduce searching and can shorten travel between resources.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Bombus impatiens (adapted and translated; exact revision)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Bombus impatiens (identity and game lineage)

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

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