Brilliant bees connect the dots to crack Morse Code in dash for food

SCIENTISTS are buzzing after finding out that bees can understand parts of the Morse Code.

- STEPHEN BEECH

A groundbreaking study is the first to show that an insect can decide where to forage for food based on different durations of visual cues.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London built a special maze to train individual bees to find a sugar reward at one of two flashing circles, shown with either a long or short flash duration.

The bees were eventually able to tell the difference between the short flash and the long flash.

REMARKABLE

Doctoral student Alex Davidson and his supervisor Dr Elisabetta Versace, who led the study, said it was clear the bees had learnt to tell the lights apart based on their durations.