Bees really act strangely when there is a solar eclipse and scientists can not explain it – BGR

The long awaited total solar eclipse that has crossed the United States in 2017 has changed the way many of us behaved for a very short time. Instead of working or playing, we looked at the sky like a group of nuts for a while, but apparently humans were not the only ones involved in the show.

In a new study published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of AmericaThe researchers explain that the bees have also decided to take a break from their busy days. On August 21, when the moon blocked the sun for a few brief moments, the bees simply stopped.

Scientists have installed tiny microphones in hives to test the reaction of insects when sunlight is almost completely blocked. Before the start of the experiment, the team expected the bees to move more slowly, such as when the sun begins to set each day in the sky before resting at night in their bodies. hives. That's not what happened.

Instead, the bees were fully active until the whole – the point where the Sun is totally blocked by the Moon – apparently did not seem to have noticed the eclipse as it was happening until -the. When the totality reached its goal, however, the bees stopped immediately, instantly entering a low-energy mode that persisted until the sun again peaked around the water. Moon.

"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. Dr. Candace Galen of the University of Missouri, senior researcher said in a statement. "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 research was conducted with the help of citizen scientists from across Oregon, Idaho and Missouri, including elementary school students who helped them listen for signs of bee behavior change. The result was really unexpected, and until now largely unexplained, and adds another wrinkle to the complex behavior of bees.