Summary
This study investigates whether bumble bees (Bombus impatiens and/or Bombus terrestris) make nutritionally optimal dietary choices when offered diets varying in protein, lipid, and carbohydrate composition. Using a controlled experimental framework, the authors assess whether self-selected diets align with those that maximise fitness indicators, contributing to the growing field of nutritional ecology in managed and wild pollinators. The findings are likely to inform understanding of how nutritional stress — driven by landscape simplification, climate change, or pesticide exposure — affects pollinator health and colony performance.
UK applicability
Bombus terrestris is a native UK species and a commercially important pollinator widely used in British horticulture; findings on optimal nutritional requirements are therefore directly relevant to UK pollinator conservation strategies and agri-environment scheme design aimed at improving floral resource diversity.
Key measures
Dietary macronutrient intake (protein, lipid, carbohydrate ratios); colony survival; worker and brood fitness metrics; nutrient self-selection behaviour
Outcomes reported
The study measured whether bumble bees actively regulate intake of protein, lipids, and carbohydrates, and whether the dietary choices they make improve fitness outcomes such as survival, colony growth, or reproductive success.
Topic tags
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