News Animals

Submerged bumblebee queens breathe underwater

A serendipitous lab accident (well maybe not for the bumblebees) led to the discovery

A bumblebee sits atop a pinkish-purple flower. The bee, facing to the left, is at rest with its wings folded.

Hibernating bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) queens can breathe underwater to survive a flood, a new study shows. Their metabolisms also switch to strategies that don’t rely on oxygen.

Lucas Borg-Darveau/Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2026

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

This is a human-written story voiced by AI.