Birds and bees

In addition, at some places along the eclipse's journey, researchers found a brief increase in the number of animals flying at low altitudes during the whole. According to the study, this peak, which occurred only during the whole and was too low to have an impact on the average of the data, "could indicate that insects have a more immediate and explicit reaction to l & # 39; darkness. "

Quiet bee

It is interesting to note that the idea that insects change strongly and quickly during a total solar eclipse is corroborated by another study published last month in the journal. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. As part of the study, researchers from the University of Missouri organized a large number of science citizens and elementary school classrooms to acoustically control how all of them influence bee behavior.

The results were surprisingly clear: the bees stopped buzzing during the total solar eclipse.

"We expected, according to some articles in the literature, that the activity of the bees diminishes as the light decreases during the eclipse and reaches a minimum at all," he said. the main author, Candace Galen, in a press release. "But we did not expect the change to be so abrupt, that the bees continue to fly to the totality and then only to stop completely. It was like "turning off the lights" at the summer camp! This surprised us. "

"The eclipse gave us the opportunity to ask ourselves if the new environmental context – open sky at midday – would change the behavior of bees' behavior in the dark and dark," Galen said. "As we have found, complete darkness causes the same behavior in bees, regardless of the time or the context. And this new information on the cognition of bees. "

Next step…

Although there has been a 40-year hiatus between the two previous total eclipses in the continental United States, fortunately the Americans do not have to wait that long. On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will travel back to Texas, slide into the heart of the country and end in Maine – and countless researchers will again monitor the impact of this eclipse on the flora and fauna the United States.