Bees actively adjust flower choice based on color and distance: Updating 'flower constancy' beyond Darwin's theory

Since Darwin's time, the phenomenon known as flower constancy -- i.e., where insects consistently visit the same flower type even when many others are also present -- has been understood as a passive behavior to reduce the effort of remembering different flower types. However, researchers have now shown via experimentation with bees that this behavior is an active strategy in which bees balance the time required for memory retrieval and moving between flowers, thereby realizing efficient foraging.