Bees Use Electrical Sixth Sense When Searching for Flowers

Researchers have unearthed more mysteries about bees, as the latest study shows the hairy little flying creatures have a "electrical" sixth sense.

According to the findings, bees can sense an electrical signal that helps them determine which flowers have enough pollen and nectar to spare, The Register reports, and they can also tell when another bee beat them to the punch.

Researchers say that as bees fly they acquire a positive electrical charge while flowers have a negative charge. When a bee lands on a flower, the bee can sense the difference in charge. That sensation, along with other factors such as colors, fragrance, and patterns, attracts bees to flowers for pollination.

Now, according to the study conducted at the University of Bristol, researchers say that when a bee lands on a flower some of the bee's electrical charge transfers into the flower. As more and more bees land on the same flower, its change in electrical charge begins to become visible to other flying bees who know the flower has already been robbed of its goods so they move on to another.

Researchers did the study by placing electrodes in the stems of petunias and watched as every time a bee landed on the flower its charge would change for a few minutes. Researchers also uncovered that bees can somehow sense and discern the different electrical fields emitted by flowers. How they do it is unclear.

"The co-evolution between flowers and bees has a long and beneficial history, so perhaps it's not entirely surprising that we are still discovering today how remarkably sophisticated their communication is," the authors of the study wrote.