Bumblebee queens breathe underwater to survive drowning

xattt

Source paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2066/202...

PlunderBunny

Edit: I’m wrong - ignore this please. Bumblebees don’t sting, but they can bite, as I discovered after many years of picking them up when I saw them on the ground in a vulnerable spot.

cubefox

(I keep noticing this, more and more websites are including unnecessarily huge images on top. This one has a 24 MP (6000×4000) header. At least it's a JPEG with "just" 5.83 MB, not a PNG.)

NAR8789

> Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society Bee

LlamaTrauma

I'm uncomfortable with the methods used in this experiment. We don't even have a consensus on if or how insects feel pain, but we're raising them in labs for the purpose of drowning them. As far as I know freezing or crushing insects is a humane way for them to go, and I'm sure this research will be beneficial for insect conservation, but ultimately it's all in the interest of maintaining an ecosystem that humans rely on with little concern for the insects' well-being.

jmount

It is "to survive floods" not to "survive drowning."

steve_adams_86

One time I stored a bag of maple leaves in a garbage bag which I used for feeding my compost. I didn't need it much over winter, and in spring when I went to use it, dozens of bumblebees came out. They'd hibernated in a bag of leaves. It was such a cold winter for our climate (it hit -15°C one night!) and somehow they were just fine. When I was a kid I didn't think much about where they hibernate, how, or why. But they're definitely a species that continually yields fascinating revelations. Apart from their ability to sleep in leaves for 6 months or so, they're also able to learn to use door flaps and, apparently, survive flooding. They're resilient little creatures. Every animal seems to have surprising abilities and behaviours if you're just lucky enough to see it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J9Cr_M5osI

cush

It’s so interesting that we’re only now finding this out