Electric Entomology: How Insects Interact With Electricity in the Environment

Entomologists have been aware of insect-electrostatic interactions for decades. Insect surface potentials have been proven to enable electroreception, resource assessment, and pollen transfer. Insect cuticle acts as a dielectric material, meaning it conducts electricity poorly. Researchers have found that ticks can be passively pulled toward their host using electrostatic forces. This increased excitability may have influence on some mites’ success in locating honey bees and other pollinating insects in the wild. The insect sensory system is sensitive enough to detect these very small deflections. This enables bees to detect the presence of flowers over short distances. Since mites don’t always need to be strong enough to resist gravity, a major honey bee parasite, Varroa mites, have been shown to increase the activity in the area where the bees are located. This could have a major impact on the success of some bee colonies in finding suitable hosts for them to mate with. It is hoped that this research will one day be published in a book.

Source: Entomologytoday.org  |  Read full article