Tag: Steffan Lab

Do bees farm microbes? Rethinking what it is to be a bee

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A bee on a purple flower. Dr Dharampal and Dr Steffan study bee–microbe symbioses.

Bees have not been eating what we thought they were. The work of Dr Prarthana Dharampal and Dr Shawn Steffan, University of Wisconsin, USA, shows bees are not strict vegetarians requiring just pollen and nectar for food. Larval bee health is also reliant on eating the microbes that are feeding on the pollen supplies. The bee larvae are further up […]

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