Bumblebees have surprised researchers by their ability to navigate in complete darkness, writes Richard Northover.
Thought to use landmarks and the sun to find their way around, they were considered to be textbook examples of visual foragers. But Lars Chittka of the University of Wuerzburg, Germany, and colleagues have discovered that worker bumblebees Bombus impatiens lay down scent beacons around a food source, which enable them to relocate it without any visual cues, and that even when these beacons are removed, the bees can still orientate themselves, suggesting some sort of built-in magnetic compass.
(Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, vol. 266, p45-50).