http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/magazine/pursuit/200301/movie/m01_hi.asx I could have lived my entire life not knowing this happens in the insect world. Crazy. Only thing to make this video better is listening to Seek & Destroy (Metallica)
Right on. This was actually taken from an hour long show... it was on Discovery Channel a while back. What you don't see in this video is that the Japanese honey bee actually developed a defense strategy. They all retreat to the hive and wait for the hornets to come in... When the first couple barge in, the bees pile up on them and scuffle around, literally cooking them to death. This releases even more hornet pheromones, so the rest of the hornets keep coming in, while the bees keeping ganging up on them and frying them. It's pretty crazy... there's actually some groups in Japan who worship the hornets and do some weird ritual anytime they get romped by the Japanese honeybees. -R
Yup, Darwinism rules Suppose the European bee will learn at some point how to not get their ass kicked... -R
Hate rapid-fire posting like this, but I had to look it up.. Turns out the show was on the National Geographic Channel, called "Hornets from Hell"... http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1025_021025_GiantHornets.html The cool thing is that when the bees gang up on a hornet to cook it, they get the temp up to about 47c, just enough to kill the hornet, but not enough to kill the bees, which happens at 48c.. They're some precise little buggers. -R
There's some amazing traits that bees have like this, including their communication abilities. For such a simple creature they are capable of things that make neurologists get headaches.
yeah i too saw this in the discovery channel quite amazing. my former partner had a great idea. get a wherehouse in thailand. put in a giant ring, toss in a bear and an aligator, or lion and gorilla, let them fight to the death, do a pay per view event. spend the rest of your life on the run from the aspca
you may just get your chance... all this bee-munching action is making me hungry, I crave something crunchy, with a hint of honey... wonder if i'll find some bee-crisps in Pasadena at 1:30 in the am. otherwise it is a crunchy peanutbutter and honey sandwich. i will have to find some other videos like scorpions vs tarantulas and mongoose vs cobra
I like how they pile up the carcasses in a neat orderly fashion. I had an emperor scorpion, and she used to take her food apart and make piles of legs, thorax, or heads. she took apart a pair of tarantulas once too, man, it was like the bee thing all over again, she had fun dissecting them.
Very freaky. You know the scary thing is when I lived in Texas I actually sat on a public bench with a hornets nest under it. The hornets swormed me, crawled down my shirt and socks and just attacked me. I never even knew what was happening. An ambulence came and rushed me to the emergency room where the doctors attempted to count how many stings I had. My body was too swollen to make an exact count, but they counted 43...estimating me to have around 60-75 hornet stings. They said I could have very easily died...but luckily that wasn't the case Still remember it...Happened on a Sunday outside of a model home my parents were looking at. I ended up missing a week and a half of school.