SCIENCE LAB SCHEME : HUMMINGBIRD

 

FLOWER mites spend their lives slurping nectar and nibbling pollen in flowers throughout the tropics.

To travel from one blossom to another, these tiny eight-legged creatures hitch rides on the beaks of hummingbirds, taking shelter in in the birds' nostrils during flight.

When a speedy hummingbird arrives at a flower to drink nectar, mites run towards its beak to get onboard before eventually transferring to another blossom.

But the poppy-seed-sized mites can basically blind and can't jump, said Carlos Garcia-Robledo, a biologist at the University of Connecticut.

How do they sense the bird's presence and attach to it so quickly?

While doing research at a biological station in Costa Rica, Dr. Garcia-Robledo and his colleagues decided to try to answer this question.

In a study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, the team discovered that flower mites can sense the same kinds of modulated electric fields that hummingbirds create when their wings rapidly flutter next to a flower.

Moreover, these electric fields can also rapidly lift mites across a small air gap.

The Publishing continues to Part [2]

The World Students Society thanks Douglas Main.