Abstract
Bumblebees are important pollinating insects for a wide variety of crops and wild flowering plants, but many species are experiencing declines throughout the world due to multiple factors including nutritional stress. Bee nutrition may initially appear simple, with all species feeding exclusively on pollen and nectar. However, these flower resources come from a taxonomically diverse range of plants that are varied in their biochemistry and therefore in the nutritional value of their nectar and pollen. In addition, bumblebee nutritional requirements differ between castes and life-stages, and there are also a wide variety of differences between bumblebee species in their life-history traits, including methods of larval feeding and the flower taxa they prefer to forage on. As with all organisms, suboptimum nutrition (nutritional stress) can have significant effects on growth, development and survival, but our understanding of nutritional biology in bumblebees comes predominantly from just two species that are not representative of bumblebees in general, or of the species that are of greatest conservation concern. For the conservation of declining bumblebees and the sustainable management of healthy commercial colonies, understanding the nutritional biology of a greater diversity of species should therefore be a priority.
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