The original version of this story was published in Quanta Magazine. It explores the fascinating world of aerial electroreception, a new field of study that investigates how animals use electric fields to navigate and interact with their environment.
Imagine being a honeybee, with your small body and delicate wings, flying through a world full of giant animals and plants. But despite your small size, you possess a grand sense that humans lack. Your five eyes can see colors and patterns that we can’t, and your antennae can detect odors from distant flowers. And now, scientists are discovering that you may also have the ability to sense and influence your surroundings through static electricity.
In 2013, researchers at the University of Bristol discovered that bees can detect and discriminate among electric fields radiating from flowers. Since then, more studies have shown that other insects, such as spiders and ticks, also possess this ability. This animal static has a significant impact on ecosystems, as parasites and spiders use it to travel and find food.
But beyond its ecological effects, scientists are also interested in understanding how evolution has fine-tuned this electric sense. It may play a crucial role in the survival of small creatures, helping them find food, migrate, and infest other living things.
This emerging field of aerial electroreception is opening up a new dimension of the natural world. As Anna Dornhaus, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Arizona, puts it, “This whole field has the potential to uncover things that didn’t occur to us about how the world works.”
The research on electrostatics in animals is ongoing, and scientists are excited to see what else they can uncover about this fascinating sense. As Benito Wainwright, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of St. Andrews, says, “We know from all these brilliant experiments that electric fields do have a functional role in the ecology of these animals.”
