Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.

Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) nest in the open and have evolved a plethora of defence behaviors. Against predatory wasps, including hornets, they display highly coordinated Mexican wave-like cascades termed 'shimmering'. Shimmering starts at distinct spots on the nest surface and then spr...

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Autores principales:	Gerald Kastberger, Evelyn Schmelzer, Ilse Kranner
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2008
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/bee7adc8e7174af89f3954477435b9cd
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:bee7adc8e7174af89f3954477435b9cd2021-11-25T06:18:40ZSocial waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0003141https://doaj.org/article/bee7adc8e7174af89f3954477435b9cd2008-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/18781205/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) nest in the open and have evolved a plethora of defence behaviors. Against predatory wasps, including hornets, they display highly coordinated Mexican wave-like cascades termed 'shimmering'. Shimmering starts at distinct spots on the nest surface and then spreads across the nest within a split second whereby hundreds of individual bees flip their abdomens upwards. However, so far it is not known whether prey and predator interact and if shimmering has anti-predatory significance. This article reports on the complex spatial and temporal patterns of interaction between Giant honeybee and hornet exemplified in 450 filmed episodes of two A. dorsata colonies and hornets (Vespa sp.). Detailed frame-by-frame analysis showed that shimmering elicits an avoidance response from the hornets showing a strong temporal correlation with the time course of shimmering. In turn, the strength and the rate of the bees' shimmering are modulated by the hornets' flight speed and proximity. The findings suggest that shimmering creates a 'shelter zone' of around 50 cm that prevents predatory wasps from foraging bees directly from the nest surface. Thus shimmering appears to be a key defence strategy that supports the Giant honeybees' open-nesting life-style.Gerald KastbergerEvelyn SchmelzerIlse KrannerPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 9, p e3141 (2008)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Gerald Kastberger Evelyn Schmelzer Ilse Kranner Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
description	Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) nest in the open and have evolved a plethora of defence behaviors. Against predatory wasps, including hornets, they display highly coordinated Mexican wave-like cascades termed 'shimmering'. Shimmering starts at distinct spots on the nest surface and then spreads across the nest within a split second whereby hundreds of individual bees flip their abdomens upwards. However, so far it is not known whether prey and predator interact and if shimmering has anti-predatory significance. This article reports on the complex spatial and temporal patterns of interaction between Giant honeybee and hornet exemplified in 450 filmed episodes of two A. dorsata colonies and hornets (Vespa sp.). Detailed frame-by-frame analysis showed that shimmering elicits an avoidance response from the hornets showing a strong temporal correlation with the time course of shimmering. In turn, the strength and the rate of the bees' shimmering are modulated by the hornets' flight speed and proximity. The findings suggest that shimmering creates a 'shelter zone' of around 50 cm that prevents predatory wasps from foraging bees directly from the nest surface. Thus shimmering appears to be a key defence strategy that supports the Giant honeybees' open-nesting life-style.
format	article
author	Gerald Kastberger Evelyn Schmelzer Ilse Kranner
author_facet	Gerald Kastberger Evelyn Schmelzer Ilse Kranner
author_sort	Gerald Kastberger
title	Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
title_short	Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
title_full	Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
title_fullStr	Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
title_full_unstemmed	Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
title_sort	social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2008
url	https://doaj.org/article/bee7adc8e7174af89f3954477435b9cd
work_keys_str_mv	AT geraldkastberger socialwavesingianthoneybeesrepelhornets AT evelynschmelzer socialwavesingianthoneybeesrepelhornets AT ilsekranner socialwavesingianthoneybeesrepelhornets
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Social waves in giant honeybees repel hornets.

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