Honeybee swarms can generate as much electricity as a thunderstorm.

According to a study, honeybee swarms can generate as much electricity as a thunderstorm.

Researchers from the university of Bristol in the United Kingdom found this by chance and they describe it in a study that was published in  journal iScience.

Biologist Ellard Hunting, first author on the study with team was studying how different organisms use the static electric fields that are everywhere in the environment. Atmospheric electricity has variety of functions like controlling weather patterns and helping organisms, such as in helping them find food.

Because of air friction, all insects develop a charge during flying, however the quantity of the charge varies from species to species. This effect (in swarming bees) "came as a surprise," according to Hunting, because individual bees carry a charge that is too little for researchers to see.

Because of air friction, all insects develop a charge during flying, however the quantity of the charge varies from species to species. This effect (in swarming bees) "came as a surprise," according to Hunting, because individual bees carry a charge that is too little for researchers to see.

The researchers used a camera and electric field monitors to record and monitor currents during the honeybee swarms, the researchers examined the hives on the field station. According to the study's authors, swarms can happen when a hive becomes congested, with the queen bee fleeing with about 12,000 worker bees.

As the swarms moved over the monitors, currents were monitored for about three minutes at a period, and charges between 100 and 1,000 volts per metre were recorded. When the swarm was denser — or more tightly packed with bees — the electric field was stronger, Hunting and his colleagues discovered. They discovered that the atmospheric charge might resemble a storm cloud, thunderstorm, or electrified dust storm depending on the swarm density.

The team predicted the impact of other insect species, such as locusts, that swarm on a "biblical scale" using the model created with honeybees. They theorised that these insects have the potential to change their local electrical environment with a "magnitude comparable with meteorological events," according to the study.

Hunting stated that he thinks the discoveries of the team offer up new directions for study, particularly in the connection between the natural world and atmospheric electricity.