Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

Bumblebees Can Breathe Underwater?!

Most people assume bees are creatures of the air, zipping between flowers on warm sunny days, but scientists just discovered something that completely turns that picture on its head. Bumblebee queens, it turns out, can actually breathe underwater, and the whole finding began with a lab accident that nobody saw coming. A conservation biologist studying the effects of pesticides on hibernating bumblebees opened her lab fridge one day to find that condensation had flooded several of her test tubes, completely submerging the queens resting inside. She assumed they were all dead, and then watched in total disbelief as they started moving the moment she removed them from the water.

That accidental discovery launched a full scientific investigation, and the results now published in a major research journal have left experts genuinely astonished. Like most bees, queen bumblebees spend the winter hibernating underground, waiting out the cold months so they can emerge and start new colonies when spring arrives. During that time, melting snow and heavy rains can saturate the soil and bury them in water for days at a stretch, and scientists now know they have developed two remarkable survival tricks for exactly that situation. The queens slow their body functions down to roughly 5 percent of their normal rate, dramatically reducing how much oxygen they need, and then quietly extract whatever oxygen remains dissolved in the surrounding water, just as aquatic insects do. If the oxygen runs too low, they can also switch to a backup system that fuels their cells without it entirely, then spend the following days breathing hard to flush out the waste products left behind. Researchers say this is the first time any land-based insect has been confirmed to breathe underwater, and they now suspect the ability may turn out to be far more common among bee species than anyone has imagined.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bumblebee-queens-breathe-underwater-to-survive-drowning-revealing-how-they-can-live-submerged-for-a-week-180988330/

PrevPreviousThe 98th Academy Awards May Be The Most Exciting In Years
Next12-Year-Old Just Achieves Nuclear Fusion In His Living RoomNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Eating Eggs Regularly May Cut Alzheimers Risk By Up To 27 Percent

May 9, 2026

A new study from Loma Linda University Health has found that adults 65 and older who eat eggs regularly have a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, with people who consumed at least one egg per day for five or more days a week showing up to a 27

Read More
Happy News

Birdwatching Among Gen Z In Britain Has Grown By Over 1000 Percent Since 2018 And The Reasons Why Are Beautiful

May 8, 2026

Birdwatching has quietly become one of the fastest-growing hobbies among young people in Britain, with new research from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds finding that nearly 750,000 people aged 16 to 29 now birdwatch regularly, a staggering increase of more than 1,000 percent since 2018. The study

Read More
Happy News

Meet The Record Holders Who Prove That Age Is Genuinely Just A Number

May 8, 2026

Guinness World Records has published a new feature celebrating some of the most extraordinary older athletes on the planet, a collection of record holders that makes a compelling case that age really is just a number. Leading the group is Mathea Allansmith of Hawaii, born in 1930, who took up

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.