SCIENCE LAB SCHEMES : HUMMINGBIRD [2]

 

FLOWER MITES : The hitchhiker's guide to the hummingbird : Flower mites spend their lives slurping nectar and nibbling pollers in flowers throughout the tropics.

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

THIS is the first time that the ability to sense electric fields has been found in mites, and it suggests that this '' electroreception '' may be widespread and ecologically important, said Daniel Robert, a biologist at the University of England who has published many studies on electroreception.

In the study, Dr. Garcia-Robledo and the biologist Diego Dierick and Konstantine Manser devised experiments to assess the mites' abilities.

In one, they placed mites near an electrode above a grounded copper plate.

When the electrode was off or imbued with nonmodulated electric field, all but one of the mites walked away.

When it was turned on and vibrating within the range of electric fields that emanate from hummingbirds, almost all mites stayed and lifted their two front legs toward the electrode.

The World Students Society thanks Douglas Main.