Bees can be left or right-handed like humans
Researchers believe this “intrinsic bias” makes them more efficient when flying in a swarm.
A few months ago, it was revealed that bees understood the concept of zero and now it appears they share another trait with humans: a preference for handedness.
No, bees do not have hands like us but they do have a “distinct bias” in their flying direction.
According to Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, of The University of Queensland’s Queensland Brain Institute, honeybees “displayed handedness that varied from individual to individual”.
While studying the flying decisions made by honeybees, the researchers found that when given a choice of passing through two gaps – one wide and one narrow – the bees preferred the wider opening.
However, when the gaps were of equal width, 45% of them showed a direction bias.
Then measuring the flight times of the biased bees, the researchers noted that when passing through openings of different widths, a bee took longer to make a decision if its “intrinsic bias” was toward the side with the narrower opening.
“Flying insects constantly face the challenge of choosing efficient, safe and collision-free routes while navigating through dense foliage.”
The research is published in the journal PLOS One.
