Mostbeesare diurnal creatures , meaning that they ’re alive during daylight hours . After flying around all sidereal day , they start to slow down around dusk and turn back to their colonies at dark tosleep .
consider that daytime plays an important theatrical role in a bee ’s busy schedule , would a total solar eclipse baffle their plan ? Would the bees think it ’s clip to turn in for the night when the Moon passes in front of the Sun andblocks out its lighter ? These are the questions researchers from the University of Missouri set out to do when they traverse bee activity during the lasttotal solar eclipseon August 21 , 2017 .
Theirfindings , published today in theAnnals of the Entomological Society of America , yielded some surprises . steer author Candace Galen tell they expected to see bee activity bit by bit diminish as the sky darken . " But we had not expected that the alteration would be so disconnected , that bees would persist in fly up until total [ of the occultation ] and only then stop , completely , " Galen say in astatement . " It was like ' lights out ' at summer camp ! That surprised us . "
Of the 16 locations they trail , only one bee was hear flying during the eclipse . This is one of the first studies to analyze how bees react to a solar eclipse , and few sketch like this have looked at similar behaviour in other insects or animals . A1991 studyfound that desert cicadas in Arizona stop chirping for about 40 minutes during a fond solar eclipse . Another study from 1973 discover that captive squirrels became restless and ran around far more during an occultation , while other research showed that Blue bulls at a zoological garden in India alter their feeding and rest period during a partial solar occultation .
Before the latest bee study kicked off , investigator used lilliputian microphones and temperature sensing element to pass over bee pollination by listening to them buzz about . That same method was applied to the solar occultation experimentation , and 16 monitoring station were set up along the occultation ’s route of sum in Oregon , Idaho , and Missouri . More than 400 scientist , citizens , and elementary school teachers and students attend to with the experimentation .
The mike were hang on peak that bees had pollinate in semi - remote location away from understructure and fomite traffic . After the occultation , the recording were direct off to Galen ’s lab , where investigator matched up flying activity with the different occultation periods . In doing so , it was distinguish that bee ( mostly bumble and honey bee ) keep flee during the partial - eclipse phase angle before and after the total eclipse . Practically no buzzing was recorded during the period of entirety , save for one trajectory pick up by microphones .
investigator also noticed that bee ' flight of steps were longer during those partial - eclipse phases , but they were likely slower flights as a consequence of the reduced light . They may have been riposte to their beehive , conceive that it was meter to remain , researchers evoke .
" The occultation give us an chance to ask whether the novel environmental context — mid - day , loose skies — would alter the bees ' behavioural reaction to dim light and wickedness , " Galen tell . " As we set up , complete darkness arouse the same doings in bees , regardless of timing or setting . And that ’s new information about bee knowledge . "
The next total solar eclipse in North America will take place on April 8 , 2024 , at which time Galen ’s squad plans to do a second experiment . The researchers desire to ameliorate their audio - analysis software package to determine whether a bee is leaving or returning to its settlement . That way , they ’ll be able to secernate whether bee direct home during a total occultation .
