Bumblebees "nibble" on plants to make them bloom faster, surprising scientists

    If bumblebees find too little pollen, they sting the leaves of non-flowering plants to lead them to flower production more quickly.

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    Climate change and global warming are endangering the habitats of bumblebees and bees, which increasingly struggle to colonize new territories and reproduce in new areas. But they, however, are very ingenious beings, so much so that they make sure to get pollen in any case. In fact, a new study reveals that bumblebees cause plants to bloom: if they find too little pollen, they prick the leaves of non-flowering plants to lead them to flower more quickly, making small incisions in their leaves. A discovery that stunned scientists.





    How it actually works remains a mystery but, if replicated, it could be a boon to agriculture.

    The extraordinary method is revealed by research "Bumble bees damage plant leaves and accelerate flower production when pollen is scarce ”, published in Science by a team of researchers from ETH Zürich and Universite Paris-Saclay. Researchers have basically found that, when they run out of pollen, bumblebees gnaw on the leaves of plants to induce them to bloom. A way that would deceive the plants and lead them to anticipate flowering, even up to 30 days earlier than normal.

    Bumblebees, massive and covered in hair, are large wild pollinators and essential for many crops, but they too, in recent years, have undergone a drastic reduction. Spring came early this year, accompanied by temperatures more similar to those of early summer.

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    “These types of seasonal anomalies are becoming more and more frequent due to climate change and the resulting uncertainty threatens to destroy the timing of mutualistic relationships between plants and their insect-pollinating insects,” they say from ETH Zürich.

    A systematic review

    According to surveys, when they are short of pollen, bumblebees are able to literally gnaw the leaves of plants to induce their flowering: this deceives them and leads them to bloom sometimes even up to 30 days earlier than normal.

    A behavior, this, already noted in other experiments undertaken by the main author of the study, Foteini Pashalidou: the pollinators nibbled the leaves of the plants used for the tests. Only later did we try to understand why.



    By conducting outdoor studies, ETH researchers have shown that "the propensity of bumblebees to damage leaves has a strong correlation with the amount of pollen they can get: damage to bees is done much more frequently when there is little. or no pollen at their disposal ".

    Bumblebees

    ©Hannier Pulido/ETH Zurich

    And not only that: that sort of "damage" inflicted on the leaves of the plants had significant effects on the flowering time in two different species: tomato plants subjected to bumblebee bites bloomed up to 30 days earlier than those that had not been taken. targeted, while mustard plants bloomed about 14 days earlier when they were damaged by bumblebees.

    Bumblebees

    ©Hannier Pulido/ETH Zurich

    "The stage of development of the plant when bitten by bumblebees can affect the degree of acceleration of flowering," explains Consuelo M. De Moraes of ETH, a factor the researchers intend to study in the future.

    This could create an entirely new way for humans to grow plants, a potentially important benefit for agriculture, the researchers say. And not only that, learning more about the relationship between bumblebees and flowering could have implications for these creatures' resilience in the face of an ever-changing environment.

    “I think it's fascinating how much we don't yet know about organisms that we think we know really well. It absolutely increases our sense of wonder at the intelligence of nature in all its many forms ”, concludes De Moraes.


    Fonti: Science / ETH Zurich

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