Bees don’t just fly. They have a hidden but vital function: they use the flight muscles even when they are not flying, producing some very powerful vibrations. This type of hum, called buzz-pollinationserves to bring out the pollen from the flowers that keep it well hidden. They make it tightening the flowers of the flowers with the body and contracting the muscles up to 400 times per second. It seems almost a small earthquake concentrated in a few millimeters.
To explain this fascinating behavior is Dr. Charlie Woodrow, researcher at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, who dedicated years to the study of the “not flight” of bees. A hum that, in addition to placing, is used for communicate between bees, defend oneself and even adjust the temperature within the hive.
What is happening in the fields of Europe
Together with his team, Woodrow analyzed the vibrations produced by Terrestrial Bomb (Bombus Terrestris)a common species in Europe, using special sensors called accelerometers. These tools, applied on the alce or on the flowers visited, precisely detect the type of vibration emitted.
The data collected are worrying: When it is too hot or the bees are exposed to heavy metalsvibrations become more slow and less effective. Translated: the hum changes tone, it becomes less powerful, less useful. This could make the release of pollen and therefore pollination much more difficult.
Also, thanks to thermolet and high -speed shootingthe researchers discovered behaviors never observed before. For example, bees, but transmit vibrations to flowers bite them periodically. A tiny but essential gesture, which shows how complex and refined these interactions are.
An alarm bell for biodiversity
The effects of these alterations can be enormous. “If the buzz does not work as it should, the entire pollination could become ineffective,” explains Woodrow. And without pollination, many plants do not reproduce. And without those plants, the balance of biodiversity breaks, even for us humans.
But that’s not all. These hums could become A way to measure the health of the environment. If they change in certain areas, it means that something does not go there: too hot, too much pollution, too much stress for insects.
The researchers are already working for Use these sound signals as pollution indicators. Also, they are experimenting with the use of micro- able to reproduce bees vibrations, to better understand how to release pollen. One day, these technologies could even help protect crops.
The work was officially presented on July 8, 2025 to Society for Experimental Biology annual conference In Antwerp, in Belgium.
