Humans have it pretty good. When we’re hungry, we can just go to the kitchen, or at worst, the shop, and get something to eat. Other animals don’t have this luxury, so bumblebees have developed their own trick to make sure there’s always food on the menu.
Bumblebees spend their winters hibernating, and when they wake up in spring they want breakfast. Unfortunately, sometimes they wake up before many flowers have opened to feed them.
Researchers discovered that when bees are hungry they will chew small crescent-shaped holes in plants’ leaves. These aren’t to eat; instead, this action causes the plant’s flowers to open up more quickly, up to a whole month earlier.
The scientists were able to copy this strategy to get a similar result, but their flowers still took longer to open than the bees’. Because of this, we think that these insects may have some special chemical or trick that gives them the edge when getting their food ready to eat.
Lachlan Writes Science 