Dear Readers, not only are Bumblebees the Einsteins of the insect world, but they also turn out to have a natural sense of rhythm. An experiment by scientists at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, have found that the bees can not only recognise a Morse-code like rhythm, they can recognise it when the rhythm is presented to them in different ways.

First up, the bees were presented with two artificial flowers. One contained nectar, the other an unappetising bitter liquid (quinine). One flower had LED lights that flashed long pulses, the other that flashed in short bursts – a bit like the dashes and dots in Morse code. The bees quickly learned to recognise the code for the sweet reward.

Then the bees were presented with two flowers both containing water, but with the same flash patterns. Almost all the bees headed to the pattern that had previously contained the nectar.

To up the ante, the scientists then presented the bees with more complex patterns – dash-dash-dot-dot or dot-dash-dot-dash. The bees still learned which one meant a reward.

But the truly surprising result came when the flowers were replaced with a maze. At the junction between the two branches was a vibrating floor. One rhythm meant ‘turn right for sugar’ and the other meant ‘turn left for sugar’. The bees learned this easily (and I confess to also being amazed that concepts like ‘left’ and ‘right’ can be taught to a creature the size of my thumb joint). Even when the vibrating floor was replaced with LED lights that blinked in the same rhythm, the majority of bees could still make the transition and find the sugar.

Only a few animals have demonstrated the ability to be able to abstract the key components of a rhythm from one medium (flashing lights) to another (a vibrating floor) – parrots, songbirds and primates. But it makes one wonder who else might have an innate sense of musicality, if only we were curious and ‘asked’.

The New Scientist article is here.

The research article is here.