Title: Bumblebees and floral electric fields Abstract: The transfer of pollen between plants is an important aspect of plant reproduction, and bees are major contributors to this process. Bee pollination helps keep our ecosystem healthy by enhancing biodiversity. Pollination can result in changes to a flower's scent and petal appearance. Bees use a combination of these floral cues to aid their foraging activities. This week's paper shows that in addition to using visual and olfactory cues, bumblebees also use the natural floral electric field to identify, communicate and remember the location of potential food sources. Some aquatic and amphibious vertebrates are known to communicate and survey their environment using electrical signals, but this is the first time electric sense has been observed in insects. Detection and Learning of Floral Electric Fields by Bumblebees Dominic Clarke, Heather Whitney, Gregory Sutton, Daniel Robert Science 5 April 2013: Vol. 340 no. 6128 pp. 66-69 DOI: 10.1126/science.1230883 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6128/66.full