大象传媒

Bumblebees across the globe are having to adjust swiftly to changing climates and shifting plant distributions. As summers warm in alpine regions some flowers are moving uphill in response to rising temperatures. Insects often follow their migrating food source, but in the Rocky Mountains, Dr Nicole Miller-Struttmann from the State University of New York at Old Westbury, has discovered that two species of bumblebee have shown remarkable adaptability by rapidly evolving shorter tongues to suit the changing range of local flowers.

(Photo caption: Queen bumblebee, Bombus balteatus, foraging on Oxytropis sericea flowers on the alpine tundra of Pennsylvania Mountain 漏 Christine Carson)