Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Science

Bumblebees can learn to associate new smells with their queen

Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony's queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen's pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. For the study, published in the journal Communications Biology, the researchers tre...

Bumblebees can learn to associate new smells with their queen
Image: Phys.org
Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony's queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen's pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. For the study, published in the journal Communications Biology, the researchers treated buff-tailed bumblebee queens daily with one of two different floral scents as they built their colonies.

Originally published at Phys.org

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