How Do Waves Help Animals Defend Themselves

Written past: Melinda Weaver

What's in the Story?

a flower is shown. It has 8 petals that all come together to the center of the flower in the middle o the image. Two honeybee are in the middle of the flower, presumably collecting nectar from the flower's center. The background is green, but is blurred so one cannot make out where the flower is located.

Giant honeybees pollinate flowers while feeding on nectar. Image past Dr. Farooq Ahmad.

Humans have many strategies for staying safe. At dark, you sleep in your firm rather than outside where other people or animals tin get to you. When you're on the highway, you drive in a car rather than bicycling through traffic. When you're at schoolhouse, y'all keep your books, phone, and other necessities in your locker or book pocketbook to proceed your stuff safety.

But not every animal has those options. Many, like the giant honeybees of Asia, have to live outside where they are more vulnerable to predators. And so how do they protect themselves? In thePLOS ONE article, "Social Waves in Behemothic Honeybees Repel Hornets," scientists uncovered an interesting strategy that the honeybees use to fend off predators.

A Good Defense

Similar many other animals, the giant honeybee builds a structure to live in. Specifically, they build a hive that provides shelter for immature and to store food. Many types of bees will purposefully build their hives in places that are hard to find. This helps to keep the bees safety from other animals that might effort to consume them, such as wasps or birds.

the branches of a large tree are shown, stemming from the left side of the screen. The branches, covered in green leaves, hold a large honeybee nest. The nest is large and brown and appears to be swarming with bees.

Giant honeybees build their hives in the branches of large trees. Image by Sean.Hoyland.

Unlike many other kinds of bees, giant honeybees tend to build their hives out in the open. This tin can brand them like shooting fish in a barrel for predators to observe and attack. For example, both birds and larger insects like hornets and wasps volition fly by the hive and grab bees off the top to eat.

To forestall a potential attack on their hive, giant honeybees have created a tough defence machinery. They can quickly mobilize a large group of stinging guards that will fly afterwards and attack potential predators. They can also rut their abdomens to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This works to fend off smaller predators, such every bit wasps, which die at these temperatures. Several bees environment a smaller predator, like a wasp, heating information technology up until it dies.

This defense mechanism works very well to protect the hive, simply it likewise requires the bees to use a lot of energy. For case, when you face a bully at school, it'southward easier and safer to walk abroad than to run at him or her screaming and punching. If you had to practise this dozens of times per twenty-four hour period, it would be very tiring. You might even be also tired to consume or do your homework.

In the aforementioned fashion, if the giant honeybees have to defend their hive many times a day they might be likewise tired to do annihilation else, like collect nutrient or care for immature. Scientists wondered if the giant honeybee might have some other way to protect hives in a style that uses less free energy.

The Honeybee Shimmer

To answer their question, scientists in Nepal studied the behavior of the giant honeybee. They used video cameras to record ii unlike hives. They wanted to encounter what was happening in and around the hives.

When watching the videos, scientists noticed an interesting beliefs. Dozens of honeybees would sit on a hive and all flip their abdomens up in the air at the same time. Each flip lasted less than a second. This fabricated the hive look like information technology was shimmering, or moving in a way similar to people doing "the moving ridge" at a football game. Merely why would they practice this?

Scientists wondered whether this was a beliefs that the giant honeybee used to keep predators abroad. To written report this, they recorded if a hornet was nowadays when the shimmering occurred. If a hornet was nowadays, the scientists also looked at how fast the hornet was moving toward the hive.

Overall, the videos showed that the shimmering beliefs happened whether or non a hornet was present. Just the number of bees performing the beliefs was very different in each context.

If a hornet was not present, simply a few bees would perform the shimmer. But if a hornet was nearby, almost all the bees in the hive would show the behavior. The scientists also found that if the hornet was flying more than quickly than usual at the hive, more bees would shimmer more than often.

Hornet Response

Imagine playing football with your friends. If a big player was running at yous very quickly, you would want more of your friends almost you to help you cease the other player. Yous might even jump up and yell to seem scarier. The scientists believe the bees were doing the same thing when they performed the shimmering beliefs. Just the next question they were interested in was whether the beliefs actually kept the hornets from attacking the hive.

To do this, they had to record video of the hornets. If the shimmering stopped the hornets from attacking, the behavior must be working. Scientists found that this was the case. The hornets tended to move away from the hive when the shimmering behavior occurred. This stopped them from flying over the hive and picking up bees to swallow.

Shifting Sights

And then why did shimmering work to keep the hornets away from the honeybee hive? Scientists think that maybe the motility of the bees makes each i harder to meet. And if all the hornet can meet is a moving hive, it may become confused. So it can't find one bee to grab and eat.

Scientists besides thought that when the bees were lifting their abdomens, they looked like they were going to sting. This may also look scarier to the hornet and continue them from moving whatsoever closer. Both of these things might make a hornet think twice before attacking.

Shimmering to Safety

Information technology might non make sense to usa for an animal to build its domicile in the open when at that place are other, safer options. But giant honeybees are the 2d oldest known bee species. And then they must be doing something right. Overall, this shimmering behavior shows that the giant honeybee has adult several unlike strategies to scare off predators while fugitive an attack.

Boosted images via Wikimedia Commons. Honeybee epitome past Fir0002. Vespa hornet paradigm by Gideon Pisanty. Video of shimmering behavior taken from the PLOS commodity supplementary data.

Source: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/plosable/shimmery-defense

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