2024-04-19 13:37:10
From penicillin to X-rays, science is full of serendipitous discoveries. Sabrina Rondeau’s story also begins with a coincidence – although, at first glance, my own coincidence.
The biologist from the Canadian University of Guelph specializes in pollinating insects. In an experiment, she kept the bumblebees of the species that are typical of North America An impatient bombshell in special containers. These were queens who were just overwintering.
The continued existence of the people rests on the queen
Overwintering is a critical period for a bumblebee queen. She is the only one who survives the winter. The workers and the drones from their colony die before the cold season. Only the queen hides in the ground for six to nine months to protect herself from the cold.
During this time, the continued existence of the people rests on their small shoulders. The queen already has all the fertilized eggs for next spring. If she dies, her people will also be over.
Biologist remembers: “I was shocked.”
What makes it even more difficult is that overwintering is dangerous: there is a risk of parasites, fungi, soil toxins – and last but not least, flooding. This is exactly the fate that befell Sabrina Rondeau’s bumblebee queens. Water entered the containers unnoticed. The queens were trapped underneath. In one Press release At her university, the biologist describes how she found the bumblebees in this condition, took them out of the water and then realized: the animals were alive. “I was shocked,” she remembers.
It was the initial spark for their experiment. Because there was no information in the scientific literature about how long bumblebee queens survive underwater, writes Rondeau together with a colleague in the Biology Letters.
The bumblebee queens can survive underwater for a week
In a special device, they submerged 21 overwintering bumblebee queens under water for eight hours, one day and seven days. They then took the animals out again. Even after a week, 95 percent of the bumblebees had survived. That was a similar number as in a control group that was not submerged under water at all.
How do the bumblebee queens do this? The research duo provides a number of explanations. The animals breathe through pores in their bodies, which they rarely open during the winter. This mechanism is considered to protect against hypothermia, but could also prevent the animals from drowning. They may also be able to extract oxygen from small air bubbles that stick to them underwater, the authors suspect.
The secret of the bumblebees’ success?
In any case, surviving underwater could be a secret to success An impatient bombshell be. While the numbers of other bumblebee species are declining, this species is relatively resilient, according to the study. Does their ability to survive underwater play a role here? This is a worthwhile research question.
Coincidence not only put Sabrina Rondeau on the trail of a special ability of this bumblebee species. It could also have provided the impetus to clarify pressing questions. Because bumblebees play an important role in the environment as pollinators. At the same time, they are likely to be increasingly at risk due to climate change, which makes extreme events such as floods more likely. It would be good to know what can protect these animals.
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