Non-contact measurement of a free flying bumblebee's (Bombus terrestris) electrical potential as it approaches and leaves a fixed electrode

With increasing evidence of electroreception in terrestrial arthropods, understanding receptor level processes is vital to appreciating the capabilities and limits of this sense. Here, we examine the spatio-temporal sensitivity of mechanoreceptive filiform hairs in detecting electrical fields. We first present empirical data, highlighting the time-varying characteristics of biological electrical signals. We then explore how electrically sensitive hairs may respond to such stimuli.
The main findings are: 1) oscillatory signals (elicited by wingbeats) influence the spatial sensitivity of hairs, unveiling an inextricable spatio-temporal link; 2) wingbeat direction modulates spatial sensitivity; 3) electrical wingbeats can be approximated by sinusoidally modulated DC signals; and 4) for a moving point charge, maximum sensitivity occurs at a faster timescale than a hair’s frequency-based tuning. 
Our results show that electro-mechanical sensory hairs may capture different spatio-temporal inf..., We measured the local electrical potential of buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, Linnaeus 1758) free flying around a fixed electrode.,