Unveiling the submerged secrets: bumblebee queens' resilience to flooding
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This seminar is based on an article in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0609
In a previous study, an experimental oversight led to the accumulation of water filling a container housing diapausing bumblebee queens. Surprisingly, after draining the water, queens were found to be alive. This observation raises a compelling question: can bumblebee queens endure periods of inundation while overwintering underground? To address this question, we conducted an experiment using 143 common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) queens placed in soil-filled tubes and subjected to artificially-induced diapause in a refrigerated unit for seven days. Tap water was then added to the tubes and queens (n=21/treatment) were either maintained underwater using a plunger-like apparatus or left to float naturally on the water’s surface for varying durations (8h, 24h, or 7 days) while remaining in overwintering conditions. Seventeen queens served as controls. After the submersion period, queens were removed from water, transferred to new tubes with soil, and kept in cold storage for 8 weeks. Overall queen survival remained consistently high (89.5 ± 6.4%) across all treatments and did not differ among submersion regimes and durations. These results demonstrate the remarkable ability of diapausing B. impatiens queens to withstand submersion underwater for up to one week, indicating their adaptations to survive periods of flooding in the wild.
The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of some of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.
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This seminar is based on an article in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0609
In a previous study, an experimental oversight led to the accumulation of water filling a container housing diapausing bumblebee queens. Surprisingly, after draining the water, queens were found to be alive. This observation raises a compelling question: can bumblebee queens endure periods of inundation while overwintering underground? To address this question, we conducted an experiment using 143 common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) queens placed in soil-filled tubes and subjected to artificially-induced diapause in a refrigerated unit for seven days. Tap water was then added to the tubes and queens (n=21/treatment) were either maintained underwater using a plunger-like apparatus or left to float naturally on the water’s surface for varying durations (8h, 24h, or 7 days) while remaining in overwintering conditions. Seventeen queens served as controls. After the submersion period, queens were removed from water, transferred to new tubes with soil, and kept in cold storage for 8 weeks. Overall queen survival remained consistently high (89.5 ± 6.4%) across all treatments and did not differ among submersion regimes and durations. These results demonstrate the remarkable ability of diapausing B. impatiens queens to withstand submersion underwater for up to one week, indicating their adaptations to survive periods of flooding in the wild.
The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of some of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.
▶https://royalsociety.org/
Subscribe to our channel for exciting science videos, shorts and live events.
We’re also on Bluesky ▶ https://bsky.app/profile/royalsociety.org
Facebook ▶ https://www.facebook.com/theroyalsociety/
Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/theroyalsociety/
And LinkedIn ▶ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-royal-society
The Royal Society
The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.
We aim to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science ...