He predicted the temperature of the flower

When deciding on which flower to land on, the bees will learn the warmth there. And they use the color of the flower as an indicator of temperature, the researchers found.

Honey bee perched on a flower, infrared photo (Photo: Employee)

Bumblebee are creatures that pollinate vegetables and natural flowers, feed mainly on honey and pollen.

Scientists have long maintained that the amount of bile and pollen is the decisive factor to attract them. But because these insects must save energy to maintain their body temperature, the warmth of a flower, determined by color, according to researchers, is another attractive factor.

"What bees do is a bit like we drink some hot wine on a cold day," said Lars Chittka from Cambridge University. "If you need heating, you can create your own heat, at the cost of a little energy reserves - or you can use a warm drink, and save yourself energy."

Chittka and colleagues showed bees exposed to artificial pink and purple flowers, randomly arranged, containing the same amount of fake nectar. First of all, the purple flowers have a warmer bile and 58% of the bees have landed there.

Next, the team turned the temperature of the flowers and observed again that most of the bees (about 62%) chose warmer flowers, this time pink ones.

"What's interesting is that bees not only like warm drinks, they also learn how to predict the temperature of flowers from colors," Chittka said.

The flowers can warm themselves by producing heat or absorbing the sun's warm sun. They do this because the warmer flowers will be better pollinated.

In other words, bees can influence the evolution of the flower's structure to keep it warm and thereby attract pollinators.