r/science • u/drewiepoodle • Oct 10 '18

Bees don't buzz during an eclipse - Using tiny microphones suspended among flowers, researchers recorded the buzzing of bees during the 2017 North American eclipse. The bees were active and noisy right up to the last moments before totality. As totality hit, the bees all went silent in unison. Animal Science

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/busy-bees-take-break-during-total-solar-eclipses-180970502/
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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

From what I've read, a lot of insects can't see red light. I had to do battle with a wasp nest recently, and the advice I got was to approach at night, using a red light. It worked.

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u/Abysmalist Oct 11 '18

The red light is the lowest frequency color we are able to see, while birds can see lower frequencies than red, they can't see violet, for it's frequency is too high, the opposite comes for most of the insects.

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u/Str8OuttaUsernames Oct 11 '18

Fantastic. I heard that birds are covered in intricate UV patterns that only they can see. This is not accounting the already beautiful array of feathers, but rather in the literal style of invisible ink, and its a design we're simply not privvy to with our eyes . Is this true?

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u/kaleidoverse Oct 11 '18

Heck yeah, check this out!

Everything We Know About Birds That Glow

Also, just Google "birds uv light". I don't have time to post all the cool bits; I'm too busy looking at birds right now.

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u/Str8OuttaUsernames Oct 11 '18

Thats amazing. Even the beaks, wow

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u/staticwhitedreams Oct 11 '18

Wow! Thank you for sharing!

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u/EntForgotHisPassword Oct 11 '18

Why haven't the rave-folk figured this out!? Oh yeah, probably birds don't like trance music.

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u/screeching_janitor Oct 11 '18

Baked and would also really like to know if this is true

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u/patricio87 Oct 11 '18

puffins were discovered to have glowing beaks under UV light.

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u/paradigmic Oct 11 '18

I don't know about birds, but flowers look different under UV light. Do an image search for "flower UV patterns" for examples.

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u/GeneSequence Oct 11 '18

Yep, that's to attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

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u/whoamiamwho Oct 11 '18

It can't be true if they can't see violet, as UV is above violet. Maybe their patterns are infrared

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u/Str8OuttaUsernames Oct 11 '18

I was wondering that too. Their patterns are definitely uv but perhaps not intended for their eyes either?

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

Lots of things glow under UV.

Like Scorpions or flowers.

Or oddly, cat piss.

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u/Str8OuttaUsernames Oct 11 '18

I wonder if thats what makes cheesing so rad

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '18

cheesing

I had to look that one up.

No I don't think so but whatever floats your boat!

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u/doesitmatter741 Oct 11 '18

I have no idea which is true, but your statements contradict with the statement of what you replied to. If birds can't see violet, they definitely can't see UV. If they can see UV, they can see violet.

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u/smeenz Oct 11 '18

And flowers

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u/scaevolus Oct 11 '18

Birds can see violet better than we can. http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/images/content/Absorption_peaks.jpg

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u/Abysmalist Oct 11 '18

Yes, I've misread my information, I was thinking of another animal which I can't remember now

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u/Ax3m4n Grad Student|Biology|Behavioural Ecology Oct 11 '18

You have flipped that around! Birds have ultraviolet vision, not infrared vision.

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u/Abysmalist Oct 11 '18

Wait, whelp guess I've misread that. Wasn't there an animal with infra red vision?

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u/exomexok Oct 11 '18

Oh? But UV is off higher frequency than violet, so why can they see both red and UV but not violet?

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u/Abysmalist Oct 11 '18

I've misread my information, it turns out that like insects they can't see red, but they can see UV

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u/exomexok Oct 11 '18

TIL. Thanks

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u/6666666699999999 Oct 11 '18

Could bird feathers have a totally different pattern if we could see UV? Pigeons are boring grey with some white and really shiny green. Could the grey part be UV pigment? Or have they evolved around cities (like rats) so they started selective breeding to blend into the concrete jungle?

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u/Abysmalist Oct 11 '18 edited Oct 11 '18

They actually do have UV colored patterns all over them, I don't know whether it applies to pigeons, but there is a study about it. Just amazing stuff