Science科学新发现：雄性和雌性蜜蜂具有完全不同的饮食习惯！蜜蜂为农作物授粉的重要媒介，与人类生活密切相关，蜜蜂为取得食物不停的工作，白天采蜜、晚上酿蜜，从春季到秋末，在植物开花季节，蜜蜂天天忙碌不息。雌蜂和雄蜂生活在同一巢中，雄蜂和雌蜂外形看起来比较相近，但在形态、生理和劳动分工方面均有区别。

2018年12月11日，Science杂志报道了一项最新研究进展，即雄蜂和雌蜂之间具有完全不同的饮食习惯。尽管雄性蜜蜂和雌性蜜蜂都需要采集花蜜维持生存需要，它们采集的这些营养物质来自不同的花，并且非常不同。从这点看，雄性蜜蜂和雌性蜜蜂都可以划归为不同的种了，呵呵。研究人员花费了11周的时间，在新泽西州的几个具有丰富花卉多样性的区域来观察了152个种的蜜蜂的觅食习惯，然后将近19,000昆虫带回实验室进行细致的物种和性别区分。结果发现雄性蜜蜂和雌性蜜蜂几乎从不采集来自同一类型花的花蜜，这和以前大家认为的雄性蜜蜂和雌性蜜蜂采集花蜜是随机的结论十分不同。

这种偏好性可能源于雄性和雌性明显不同的生理学和生殖需求，雄性采集花蜜的目的是为其提供即时能量，它们通常不会落在没有花蜜的花朵上。雌性蜜蜂、工蜂也需要花蜜，它们也携带花粉到它们的居住地（蜂巢），这些任务需要雌性蜜蜂造访更多类型的花朵。研究人员认为这些取食习惯的不同对于养蜂人采取不同的策略会产生一些影响。在密度大的蜂群附近种植诱人的花朵可以帮助蜜蜂获得足够的食物，但如果这些花对雄性和雌性来说都不好吃，那么蜂群就可能遭受灭顶之灾了。

Science报道原文如下（http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/male-and-female-bees-have-radically-different-taste-flowers）：

Male and female bees may look similar, but they have dramatically different dining habits, according to a new study. Despite both needing nectar to survive, they get this nutrient from different flowers—so different, in fact, that males and females might as well belong to separate species.

To make the find, researchers spent 11 weeks observing the foraging habits of 152 species of bees in several flower-rich New Jersey fields. Then they brought the insects—nearly 19,000 in all—back to the lab and meticulously identified their species and sex.

Males and females rarely drank nectar from the same type of flower, the team will report in Animal Behaviour. Using a statistical test the researchers found that male and female bee diets overlap significantly less than would be expected at random.

The preferences probably stem from the distinct physiological and reproductive demands of the two sexes. Males take nectar only for immediate energy, and they typically avoid flowers that produce no nectar. Females—the worker bees—consume nectar, too, but also carry pollen from the fields to their hive. These tasks require females to visit a greater diversity of flowers.

These dinner distinctions could affect strategies for conserving bees, the researchers contend. Planting alluring flowers near stressed colonies can help bees get enough food. But if those blossoms aren’t tasty to males as well as females, hives could still suffer.