Turns out almost all bees have magnetic particles for navigation, not just the social honey bees.
March 24, 2026
Original Paper
Broad presence of ferromagnetism in bees and relationship to phylogeny, natural history, and sociality
arXiv · 2603.20312
The Takeaway
While scientists knew honey bees could sense magnetic fields, this study shows the 'hardware' for magnetic sensing is a fundamental trait across 72 different bee species and their ancestors. This suggests that even solitary bees have been navigating via the Earth's magnetic pull for millions of years.
From the abstract
Scientists have long been fascinated by magnetoreception, the innate capacity of many animals to sense and use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation. In eusocial insects like honey bees, magnetoreception has been linked to communication and foraging. However, little is known about magnetoreception's phylogenetic patterns and relationship to species traits and natural history. Here, we demonstrate that putative magnetoreception based on ferromagnetic particles is widespread across a diversity