Asian bees paste ponytails on their structures to repel attacks by giant killer hyenas, scientists say.
The attacks could have involved dozens of heavily armed hornets and the “mass slaughter” of thousands of bees, the researchers said, after which the hornets carried bee larvae to feed their offspring. But in the ever-evolving arms race, bees have developed defense mechanisms such as hissing or gnashing hornets at them.
However, the newly discovered strategy with the help of feces amazes scientists because bees are famous hygienists for preventing disease in their hives. The team does not yet know exactly why the Poo bullets are particularly distorted.
The giant hornets studied by the team are closely related to the “killing hornets” that hit the U.S. And beekeepers in Canada have been horrified over the past year, while other giant hornets are regularly seen and destroyed in the UK. Bees in Europe and North America have not developed defenses that make them “sitting ducks,” the scientists said.
Professor Heather Matilla of Wellesley College in the US, who led the study, said: “I was shocked. [by the use of faeces] Because bees have such a good reputation for being clean. They have warm, damp, permanent homes that are the best place for the disease to grow and full of children and food. “
The arrival of giant hornets in North America in 2019 was very relevant, he said. “The first time I heard about it, I was so worried I couldn’t sleep. I thought, ‘These bees will be exterminated.’ They just don’t have contact with these horned species and as a result, they are sitting ducks. “
Matt Shardo of Bug Tlife said the use of fecal pellets by bees was “a surprisingly sophisticated defense mechanism” which shows that surviving hunting is a complex task. He said there is no guarantee that native bees could develop defenses against the hornet even after thousands of years: “This is a clear example of why we should try to slow down the zeal of invasive species.”
The research, published in the journal Professor Guard Otis at Gulf University in Canada, began when a study team asked a Vietnamese bee what the locations around bee entrances were. Ans: Buffalo dung.
The team found that bees also collect feces from livestock. “We spent a lot of time hanging out in nearby fields. I sat down with the pig and chicken coop and finally paid for it. “They then conducted experiments that showed that bee hunters find their hive only after visiting Hornets.
They found that these hornets spent less than half the time at the entrance to the structure together with the dung, compared it to clean leaves, and had a%% less time trying to chew their way. The final experiment found that the structures for the hive attack were quickly plastered with poo with the discharge that the giant hornets use for flag waving.
After contacting other bee experts, the researchers found that spotting behavior has spread throughout Vietnam and has been reported in China, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. Some species of stingless bees were known to collect animal feces and incorporate them into its structure, but this was the first report for a bee.
It is still unknown why dung repels hornets, but other insects, such as caterpillars, such as tobacco horns, cover themselves in the east to deter predators. The researchers said the disposal could be simply because it is feces, and is impure, or it could be due to substances present in the animal’s diet. Another possibility is that Poo tablets are an olfactory camouflage for the structure, using hornets to mark the target structures that mask the scent.
Matila said the discovery could also be the first clear example of the use of a bee tool. “It goes down in terms of semantics, but these bees are collecting something from the environment, catching it, manipulating it and changing the character of the object to which it is applied, making it a tool by virtually every definition. Is. “
During the research, bees were not only at risk from hornets, which are about seven times more poisonous than a single bee-like bite. “I drowned in one and it was the worst bite of my life,” Otis said.
