Page 47 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

HONEYBEES’ DEFENSE STRATEGY:

USING HEAT TO DESTROY THE ENEMY

T he Japanese giant hornets are lit- grade (117 F). The honeybees are able
o
erally a nightmare for the intro-
to withstand this heat, but it spells
Tduced European honeybees. A
colony of 30,000 European honeybees death for hornets.
can be killed in roughly three hours by
a group of some 30 hornets, which then
occupy the hive. Local honeybees, on “Unusual thermal defence by a honey-
the other hand, have been created with bee against mass attack by hornets,”
a perfect defense mechanism. Nature, Vol. 377, 28 September 1995,
pp. 334-336.
When a hornet discovers a new colony,
it secretes a special marking pheromone
to inform the others of the fact. Since
that pheromone is also detected by the
Japanese honeybees, they all gather at
the entrance of the hive to defend it.
When a hornet approaches, some 500
bees take to the air, surround it in a
tight ball and generate muscle heat.
In an infrared photograph taken of such
an attack, the temperature in the white
regions rises as high as 47 degrees centi-

The Japanese honeybees
kill the attacking hornets
by generating high tem-
peratures.