Submerged bumblebee queens breathe underwater

Submerged bumblebee queens breathe underwater Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Health & Medicine ‘Smart underwear’ measures how often humans fart By Tina Hesman Saey13 hours ago Health & Medicine How does early pregnancy lower breast cancer risk? 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Their metabolisms also switch to strategies that don’t rely on oxygen. Lucas Borg-Darveau/Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2026 By Erin Garcia de Jesús 4 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print The bedraggled bumblebee queen seemed lifeless. Yet she was somehow alive — still breathing after being underwater for roughly a week in the lab.  Did she manage to hold her breath for all that time, wondered ecological physiologist Charles Darveau. “I did a simple calculation: How much oxygen would they need on board to be able to last that long?” Darveau says. One bumblebee queen roughly one milliliter in volume would need 20 milliliters of oxygen. “So, it was impossible.”   Instead, it turns out submerged queens can survive for days by breathing underwater, Darveau and colleagues at the University of Ottawa in Canada report March 10 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The queens’ metabolisms — already dampened to ease energy demands as they hibernate in an underground hole over the winter — also switch to anaerobic strategies that don’t rely on oxygen. Bumblebee queens wait out winter by digging a hole and hibernating underground. The bee could be submerged in water if the area floods.Nigel Raine Biologist Sabrina Rondeau was part of the team that previously discovered hibernating eastern bumblebee queens (Bombus impatiens) won’t drown for up to a week after some vials holding queens flooded in a lab accident. Bumblebees hibernate in soils that could flood, but how the insects survived the lab accident was a mystery.  So Rondeau, Darveau and biologist Skyelar Rojas placed hibernating queens in vials that were filled with cold water for eight days. The team then measured how much oxygen the insects inhaled, how much carbon dioxide they exhaled and whether their bodies accumulated lactic acid, a sign of anaerobic metabolism.  Oxygen levels in the water dropped over time, the team found. The queens also continuously released carbon dioxide into the water, a sign they were still breathing.  Researchers submerged hibernating bumblebee queens in plastic vials for eight days. They took measurements to see how much oxygen the bees inhaled and how much carbon dioxide they exhaled.Charles Darveau What’s more, lactic acid levels spiked during submersion, showing that queens can also tap into other ways of producing energy. How bumblebee queens manage to breathe underwater remains unclear. But many aquatic insects trap a thin pocket of air around their bodies, and it’s possible bumblebees do the same.  Submerged queens can take some time to recover once they come up for air, Darveau says. For several days, they breathe at a higher rate than queens that don’t spend time underwater, to help their bodies clear out the lactic acid.  Sponsor Message With rainfall becoming heavier with climate change, “we’re starting to think of how many bouts of these floodings can they withstand,” Darveau says. Bumblebee queens hibernate for months, and that takes fuel. If repeated submersions put a dent in the bees’ energy reserves, “there might be some point of no return.” Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org |