Spring flooding was supposed to be a death sentence for them. Buried underground, dormant, with no way to surface, bumble bee queens caught in rising water seemed like straightforward casualties of a seasonal hazard. The assumption made sense. They are large, terrestrial insects with no obvious business being submerged for days at a time. That assumption was wrong. New research from the University of Ottawa shows that bumble bee queens can survive being completely underwater for more than a week. Afterward, they emerge and recover as though nothing particularly unusual had happened. The findings, led by Professor Charles-Antoine Darveau of the Department of Biology, reveal a layered physiological strategy that no one had previously documented in this species. It is one that may matter more as climate patterns continue to shift. Bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) queen foraging to build energy reserves in preparation for overwintering diapause. (CREDIT: Lucas Borg-Darveau) Underground, and Then Underwater Every autumn, mated bumble bee queens burrow into shallow soil to wait out winter. This state, called diapause, is something like hibernation. …