While it may be an unfamiliar sensation to humans, electroreception is relatively commonplace in the animal kingdom. Sharks, bees and even the platypus all share this ability to detect electric fields in their environment.

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have just added fruit flies to that list. A team of researchers led by Matthieu Louis found that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields and navigate toward the negative electric potential using a small set of sensory neurons in their head.

The findings, published in Current Biology, present an immense opportunity. Fruit flies are arguably the most commonly used experimental animals, the basis for studies in fields as disparate as genetics, neurobiology and aging. Uncovering electroreception in fruit flies opens new avenues of research into the basis of this sense and could even lead to new techniques in bioengineering.