September 15, 2008
belly up
A species of large bees does the wave to protect itself from wasps.
Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata), native to southern and Southeast Asia, are nearly an inch (2.5 centimeters) long, about twice the size of Western honeybees. When faced with a threat, hundreds or even thousands of giant honeybees will all rotate their abdomens in a split second to create an iridescent effect that seems to startle and confuse wasps, which hunt giant honeybees for food.
Scientists have observed this behavior before but never understood its purpose. But now researchers have determined that shimmering is triggered by approaching wasps, and serves to drive them away.
“If you think of people doing the Mexican wave in football stadiums, it takes several seconds, even 10 seconds or longer for that wave to come around the football stadium,” Kastberger said. “The horizontal span of a honeybee nest can well reach 2 meters [6.5 ft]. Such a wave in honeybees only takes 800 milliseconds. The topic of my further expeditions is to find out how they communicate so quickly.”
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