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The bees stop buzzing for a few moments when all of them hit the 2017 total eclipse event.
(IStock)
During last year's total solar eclipse, only a few minutes have stopped buzzing – bees.
In a study published this week in the Annals journal of the American Entomological Society, biologists discovered that bees – honey and bumblebees pollinating during the day, according to Scientific American – were silent for a few moments, so that the moon briefly blocked the sun in its entirety.
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With the help of more than 400 volunteers, including elementary students and teachers, scientists placed small microphones in areas pollinated by bees along the path of the entire Missouri. Oregon and Idaho. The microphones were "placed as far as possible from pedestrians and vehicles," researchers wrote in the report.
During most of the total solar eclipse of August 2017, the bees continued to buzz and work. But then, for a short time, all reaching and darkness swept, the bees stopped.
"Over a total of 3 minutes of clips, the 16 microphones hidden among flowers in geographically isolated areas captured a soundtrack composed almost entirely of silence. A single buzz interrupted the silence. In contrast, during the partial phases of the eclipse, 90% of microphones recorded at least one buzz every few minutes, indicating widespread activity of bees, "the researchers wrote.
The whole thing over, the bees buzzed once more.
"We expected, according to some articles in the literature, that the activity of bees decreases as the light diminishes during the eclipse and reaches a minimum." Candace Galen, Principal Investigator of the study and professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri, said in a statement issued by the Entomological Society of America. "But we did not expect the change to be so brutal, that the bees would continue to fly up to the totality and then only to stop completely. It was as if the lights were extinguishing at the summer camp! This surprised us. "
Interestingly, the researchers also noticed that the buzzing of bees lasted longer, as it began to darken in the moments before all. This may suggest that bees were flying more slowly.
"I think if you drive on a road and there's fog, you slow down," Galen told Smithsonian Magazine, explaining that the sudden change in luminosity probably reduced the bees' visibility. Bees are also known to slow their flight speeds at dusk, Galen said in a statement issued by the Entomological Society of America.
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"The eclipse gave us the opportunity to ask ourselves if the new environmental context – mid-day, open skies – would change the behavioral response of bees in the dim or dim light." As we have seen, complete darkness causes the same behavior in bees, regardless of the time or context.This is a new information on the knowledge of bees, "said Galen in his release.
Bees are not the only creatures to act strangely during a total solar eclipse. Dolphins, chimpanzees and bats, among other animals, also seem to do the same.
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