A recent article reports that when honeybees become unable to escape a body of water, they create ripples by flapping their wings in order to move themselves.

The article, from a pair of researchers at the California Institute of Technology, shows that when a honeybee becomes trapped in a body of water and their wings become wet, they are no longer able to create aerodynamic thrust, preventing them from taking off.

Instead, the honeybee is able to use the flapping of their wings in another way, to create ripples which they can use to generate hydrodynamic thrust. This can transport them across the surface of the water. The rate at which the honeybee can travel using this method is not insignificant – they can go as fast as three times their body length per second.

Honeybees collect water for a number of reasons, such as to dilute honey during winter to prevent the honey from crystallizing, using water to mix with pollen and nectar to create royal jelly to feed larvae, or to use the water as a method of climate control, keeping the honeybee’s hive at the correct temperature and humidity.

Whenever a bee collects water, they run the risk of becoming trapped. Their unique method of waterborne locomotion is suggested to significantly increase their chances of survival whenever this happens.

The CalTech research team claim that the insights from studying bees in water may be used to develop methods of aquatic or amphibious travel in the future.