Bees are known for feeding on flowers and collecting nectar and pollen. However, social bees can also use non-floral resources such as rotting fruit, fungi, and exudates, as well as feces and carrion, as has been documented especially among stingless bees.

Now, a scientific note published in Apidologie reports, for the first time, necrophagy and coprophagy in bumble bees in South America. In Ecuador, specimens of Bombus funebris have been observed foraging on the dried carcass of cattle and on Andean condor feces. Similar behaviour has been reported in some Bombus species in Europe, but never before in the Americas.

According to the researchers, the use of non-floral resources may also be due to a lack of available pollen sources. Further research would be valuable to investigate the feeding behaviour of this species in this particular environment.

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