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Asian honeybees have developed a defensive strategy of mobbing attacking Asian hornets in a ball and vibrating their wing muscles to increase the temperature an
by yborg 3y ago
Asian honeybees have developed a defensive strategy of mobbing attacking Asian hornets in a ball and vibrating their wing muscles to increase the temperature and eventually kill the hornet by overheating it. I assume this also kills a number of the colony's honeybees as well, but European bees have learned no similar defense and a single hornet can decimate a whole colony.
- gnicholas 3y agoDoes this only work in the hive? Or is the heat concentrated enough even out in the open?
- mcpackieh 3y agoIt seems to work even out in the open. This video shows some thermal camera imagery of it: https://youtu.be/euMNIu9a7ps?t=312 https://youtu.be/euMNIu9a7ps?t=312
- gnicholas 3y agoAh interesting. And it looks like it then doesn't kill the colony's honeybees, since they can withstand a higher temperature than the hornet.
- eappleby 3y ago"Watch A ‘Murder Hornet’ Destroy An Entire Honeybee Hive" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gAVlh-7WZM&ab_channel=VICENews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gAVlh-7WZM&ab_channel=VICEN...