A group of scientists from Canada’s University of Guelph recently discovered that queen bumblebees can survive underwater for a week during their hibernation period. The discovery, which was detailed in a study published in Biology Letters journal, was made by an accident.
The scientists were performing an experiment to determine the effects of pesticides in soil on bumblebees. As part of the experiment, hibernating queen bumblebees were placed in tubes filled with soil to mimic their natural environment. During colder seasons, male and worker bumblebees die while the queen makes its way underground and enters the state of hibernation to survive the harsh environment.
During the experiment, the tubes with queen bumblebees were placed in a refrigerator, which caused some of them to be filled with water due to condensation. However, it turned out that the water didn’t cause any harm to queen bumblebees.
The scientists then decided to run another experiment, this time filling the tubes with various degrees of water. The queen bumblebees were kept in the tubes for various amounts of time, including 21 of them being fully submerged in the water for one week to no effect. Eight weeks later, 17 of them were still alive. The control group, featuring bees that were kept dry at all times, had a similar survival rate, with 15 out of 17 queen bumblebees still being alive after eight weeks.
Scientists are not exactly sure how queen bumblebees are able to survive so long underwater, but believe it has something to do with diapause. This occurrence is common in the insect world and sees insects closing the openings in their bodies and keeping their oxygen intake at a minimum to survive in unfavorable surroundings. Queen bumblebees probably evolved to be able to survive underwater due to flooding that can take place while they are hibernating underground.
“One-third of all bumblebee species around the world are in decline right now, and so if we are able to discard flooding as being a potential threat to bees, then we can focus our attention on other threats that we know for sure are harming them,” ecologist Sabrina Rondeau, co-author of the study, told Globe and Mail.
