Bumblebees' Tiny Electric Field Sensors Helped Them to Sense Flowers

A new study by University of Bristol researchers published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that Bumblebees make the full use of their fine hairs that cover their fuzzy little bodies to detect weak electrical fields generated by flowers that they feed on and pollinate.

"There is, all the time, a background electric field in the atmosphere. Any plant that's connected to the ground will generate its own electric field just by interactions with the atmosphere," said lead author Gregory Sutton as quoted by NPR. "The bumblebees can feel that hair bend and use that feeling to tell the difference between flowers."

The findings may finally shed light on how insects and other animals detect and react to electric field around them. Until the recent discovery, most scientists believed that this sort of ability is usually confined to aquatic creatures or species that thrive in moist environments since water is major conductor of electric currents.

"This ability may arise from the low mass and high stiffness of bumblebee hairs, the rigid, lever-like motion of which resembles acoustically sensitive spider hairs and mosquito antennae," the researchers said as quoted by Sci-News.

In order to determine if and how bumblebees sense the floral electric fields, Sutton's team make use of a bunch of artificial flowers with one half electrified with 30 volts and filled with sugar water. The other half were simply filled with bitter liquid. The scientists found out that when the voltage was turned off, the bees were unable to distinguish between the two groups of flowers and started checking each flower randomly.

The results showed that bees depend much on electric fields to navigate their way to the flowers they should be feeding on. The researchers also used a laser beam to measure vibrations of an antenna or a hair. They figured out that only the bees' hairs responded more rapidly to the electrical signal. While the findings require more follow-up investigations, the study does open a new window of opportunity of knowing and understanding the undiscovered secrets of the natural world.

"This is not the first time one of the everyday insects we encounter on a daily basis has been shown to do something wild and crazy, and this will by no means be the last. This just shows us that we really don't know much about the insects we deal with on a day-in and day-out basis," Sutton said as per Yahoo News report.