{"id":165955,"date":"2026-03-17T06:31:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165955\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T06:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T06:31:31","slug":"bumblebee-queens-can-survive-underwater-for-an-entire-week-how-they-do-it-is-incredible-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165955\/","title":{"rendered":"Bumblebee queens can survive underwater for an entire week. How they do it is incredible"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study, building on previous research, has revealed the remarkable adaptations of hibernating bumblebee queens to cope with being submerged – and this whole line of research was kicked off by an accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2022, whilst undertaking research for her PhD on how pesticides impact bumblebees<\/a> at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Sabrina Rondeau (now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa in Canada) discovered something unusual. In the refrigerated soil-filled tubes – a condition mimicking natural winter conditions – containing bumblebee queens<\/a>, four of the tubes had filled with water and the queens were submerged. But interestingly, they were still alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This prompted a further formal researcher,\u00a0published in\u00a0Biology Letters<\/a>\u00a0in 2024. The study examined 143 North American common eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) in various conditions of submergence, and found that they could survive for a week underwater.<\/p>\n

After publishing this research, Rondeau teamed up with Charles-Antoine Darveau, a professor at the University of Ottawa, who was studying the metabolism of bumblebee queens during diapause – the state in which bumblebee queens spend the winter, similar to hibernation<\/a> in mammals (and\u00a0the common porwill<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together with honours student Skyelar Rojas, their new study, published in the\u00a0Proceedings of the Royal Society B<\/a>, examined how these bumblebees are able to avoid drowning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study showed that the bumblebees were able to lower their metabolic rate – reducing their need for oxygen – and keep breathing whilst underwater. In addition, they were able to produce energy via anaerobic metabolism, which doesn\u2019t require oxygen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not relying on just one strategy,\u201d says Darveau. \u201cThey combine underwater gas exchange with anaerobic metabolism. That flexibility is what allows them to survive these extreme conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being removed from the water, the bumblebees slowly woke up over a few days, and the researchers noted they were breathing at a higher rate than the bumblebees that hadn\u2019t been submerged, indicating the removal of the lactic acid built up during anaerobic metabolism.<\/p>\n

“This study shows how resilient these pollinators are,\u201d adds Darveau. \u201cUnderstanding these mechanisms helps us predict how bumblebee populations might cope with increasingly frequent spring floods.\u201d<\/p>\n

More amazing wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study, building on previous research, has revealed the remarkable adaptations of hibernating bumblebee queens to cope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-165955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}