Bumblebees are able to work more efficiently with a little caffeine.A caffeine boost can help bumblebees remember the scents of certain flowers and make it easier for them to forage for them.Even though there isn't any caffeine in the flowers, it appears that caffeine enhances bees' learning and memory skills. Research has previously shown that bees prefer flowers with naturally caffeine-rich nectar. However, it is not clear if the caffeine boosts their performance or if the caffeine actually makes them crave the flower.Jan-Hendrik and Sarah Arnold, both from the University of Greenwich in the UK, created a synthetic strawberry flower odour and fed it to bees using sugar water. They then added a small amount of caffeine to the nectar in half of those nests. Unscented sugar water was also given to the control group.AdvertisementDudenhffer allowed the bees to explore an area with eight robots that looked like flowers. These bots would then distribute synthetic nectar to the bees when they landed on them. The bees could then refill their tanks. The smell of half the robots was strawberry flowers and half was linalool. This is an odour that can be found in many flowers but not strawberries. Although all the robots offered sweet nectar, none contained caffeine.Continue reading: Honeybees can calculate probability and use it for foodThe strawberry-smelling robots were visited by half of the bees who had been fed neutral sugar water. The strawberry-smelling robots were preferred by those who had been given a strawberry-flavored strawberry nectar that was free of caffeine. This happened about 60% of the time.Arnold says that the bees that had consumed strawberry nectar with caffeine showed strong preference for strawberry-scented robots. They visited them 70% of the time. They also learned to forage faster than those without caffeine, and this led to them becoming more agile.We believe that bees were exposed to caffeine-odour sugar in the nest, which helped them remember that the synthetic strawberry odour was good. They went looking for it, she said. They seem to have retained that positive experience for longer periods of time and more strongly.This means that bees may learn to associate specific smells with particular farmers crops, and then have a sweet taste of them in their nests, with a little bit of caffeine. Arnold suggests that commercially prepared bees may be ready to find the flowers of crops, rather than weeds or wildflowers.Journal reference: Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.068Wild Wild Life is a monthly newsletter that celebrates the science and diversity of animals, plants, and Earth's other strange and wonderful inhabitants. Sign up today
