Have you ever seen a bee swatting at an ant? We bet the answer is no, but if you’re now dying to know what it’s like, today is your lucky day.
Researchers at Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies have found that Japanese honeybees remain vigilant even when faced with unwanted visitors.Honeybees) how long it would take to knock them off with some pretty impressive force, and they’ve got footage of it.
Although the behaviour has been described anecdotally before, this is the first time that the behaviour, which the researchers dub “wing beating,” has been captured in such detail.
The research team used high-speed cameras to capture the movements of Japanese honeybee colonies and Japanese termites (Tsushima) The footage was then played back in slow motion, revealing exactly how the bee swatted the ant away.
“Our findings suggest that honeybees Ants “Worker bees can strike ants through direct contact with their wings,” the researchers wrote. “Specifically, worker bees first leaned their bodies toward the ant and then performed the smacking action by simultaneously flapping their wings and rotating their bodies.”
This may be a fairly effective way to get rid of pavement ants, with a success rate of about one in two or three tries, although the success of the wing swatter may vary depending on the ant species.
The research team also observed the behavior of Japanese queen ants (Pristomyrmex punctatus) and Yamato Termite (Formica japonica) and found the latter to have a relatively low success rate, which the researchers suggest may be because the species are larger and faster, making them more difficult to shake off.
Although impressive, wing beating is Defensive Technology They’re known to be used by Japanese honeybees, and frankly, some of them are so powerful that swatting ants off cliffs seems relatively tame.
The most metallic of these is Burning a giant hornet aliveSadly, the bees have no money to buy ovens to throw the invading hornets into, but they do have an affinity for teamwork: they swarm and vibrate around the giant hornet, but the insects inside cannot survive the 47.2°C (117°F) heat generated by their action.
So why would they resort to wing-beating towards ants when there are other, more stimulating behaviours to be had? More research is needed, but the researchers suggest that cost and simplicity may be to blame.
“Wing-beating behaviour may have evolved among Japanese honeybees as a relatively low-energy general defence against the threat of ant invasion,” the team concludes.
This study Ecology.
