Warmer and wetter weather related to climate change appears to stress bumblebees and makes their wings less symmetrical, which could eventually be a threat to their future development, according to new research from UK scientists.

"With hotter and wetter conditions predicted to place bumblebees under higher stress, the fact these conditions will become more frequent under climate change means bumblebees may be in for a rough time over the 21st century," scientists at Imperial College, London, said in their report published in the Animal Ecology journal on Wednesday.

The large furry bees, known for their distinctive buzzing sound, feed on flowers, which has made them vulnerable to environmental changes caused by rapid urbanization and intensive farming.

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Their population has dramatically declined in Britain over the past century, with two species becoming extinct, according to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

The Imperial College scientists looked at more than 6,000 bumblebee specimens in natural history museums, collected across Britain during the 20th century.

The scientists looked at the right-left symmetry between the bees' four wings, with asymmetry an apparent indication that the insect experienced stress during development.

They discovered that the specimens from the second half of the 20th century had a far higher average rate of asymmetry.

Increasing imperfection

Asymmetry was also "consistently higher in warmer and wetter years," according to the paper's senior co-author Richard Gill.

"Overall, these results could suggest bumblebees experienced increasing stress as the century progressed and that aspects of climate change could have contributed to this trend," the report said.

The weather conditions linked to imperfect wings "will likely increase in frequency with climate change", it continued.

In April, scientists in the U.S. who studied more than 20,000 bees in the Rocky Mountains found that bumblebees had lower tolerance for heat than smaller bees and were "more threatened under climate warming than other bees."

Another study released in April in the British scientific journal Nature found that these global heating and intensive agriculture were causing insect populations to rapidly decline by nearly half, compared to areas less affected by temperature rises and industrial farming.