Surprising predictions part 4

 Doing the Wave: What Triggers Giant Honeybees

As if bees weren’t already amazing enough, here’s something else that will blow your mind about them. Scientists have found that the size of certain honeybees can influence how they interact with each other, and it all has to do with waves of air coming from their beating wings. According to a study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, honeybees that are either too small or too large for their nest exhibit different behaviors.

Why Are Bees in Australia Becoming Giants?

Australia's giant honeybees have been puzzling scientists for decades. They're not just a little bigger, they're enormous--with some individuals measuring as long as 2.5 inches. No one really knows why they're getting so big, but recent research has narrowed it down to a gene found in European honeybees that causes their wings to develop more slowly and produce more wing muscles. If a mutation produces more wing muscles, then there's an increase in metabolism and growth which leads to bigger bees with an extra large wing surface area! Scientists hope that by understanding how this new mutation is altering the genes of these bees, they can understand how to reverse its effects and make sure this doesn't happen to other species of bees. The exciting thing about this is that we may be able to do something, said study co-author Cameron Webb from RMIT University in Melbourne. We could potentially introduce the slow-wing trait into populations. That would mean they wouldn't grow so fast and become giants, while still being productive. It’s possible that the slow-wing trait could also affect the behavior of other bee species, like domesticated honeybees. But right now it's difficult to say how many generations are needed before researchers will know whether or not this will actually work on a larger scale. However, if it does, introducing this trait into populations could change the face of agriculture forever. More than 85% of the world's food supply relies on pollination, according to United Nations figures. The UN estimates that 10% of all flowering plants rely solely on animal pollinators and three-quarters depend at least partly on them. Most importantly, every third bite of food humans eat comes from crops that require pollinators such as apples, broccoli, onions, lettuce and carrots (to name a few). So what can you do? To help preserve the earth's wild bee population, plant flowers near your home and garden. Your local nursery should carry plenty of options for you to choose from. Don't forget to encourage others to join in too! A great way to get started is by pledging online with organizations like Pollinator Partnership, who provide resources on how you can help through volunteering, gardening, and advocating. By joining together we'll show our support for helping keep the planet healthy! Share this post to raise awareness and start doing the wave. Start doing the wave today.

How Big Can They Get?

Honeybees are tiny, as far as animals go, but they can grow to a very large size. These giant honeybees can be three times larger than your average bee and live in huge colonies of up to 100,000 members. That’s an entire year of Sundays!

The interesting thing about these behemoths is that they’re generally gentle giants. They spend most of their time eating pollen from flowers in a straight-forward fashion and staying within the borders of their territory. But sometimes there’s an intruder at work... a thief who's come for what rightfully belongs to the honeybee colony. When this happens, one or two guard bees will leave the hive and fly out to meet with any potential threat head on. If it's just one intruder, it's usually too easy for them. 

If there are multiple intruders coming for the hive then things get tricky; two or more guards may need to leave if there's more than one attacker. When it comes to a fight between intruders and defenders, size matters. Although only half the size of their attackers, the defenders have all the natural defenses needed to take down an enemy while keeping themselves safe - they've got stingers! And not only that, unlike other insects which use pheromones to communicate with each other in order to warn against danger, honeybees rely on waves created by moving their bodies side-to-side - like fans cheering for a sports team (that's where the doing the wave part comes from). It's sort of like when you try to hide something behind your back and someone else looks over and sees it anyways because you move your body differently than usual.H iding their stinger makes it harder for an outsider to identify how vulnerable the defender is. So, these giant honeybees decide to make themselves big and obvious in order to send a clear message: we're here, we're bigger than you, we're not afraid of you.

In some cases though, thieves manage to steal away undetected by hiding amongst a mass of fellow thieves. Fortunately for the owner of the goods being stolen away, such intelligent thieves never get far before being apprehended. The defenders see right through their disguise due to the lack of signal given off by those stealing without consent. Honeybees may be small creatures, but they're smart ones! What do you think would happen if a single intruder were to sneak into the hive? Why do you think two or more thieves might work together? One could lure the defending bee away and the other could steal the loot. Now, imagine if a bunch of thieves banded together to try and distract defending bees. This is what's happening to many a poor honeybee colony today. How much bigger does this group of thieves become? One hundred and twenty-four times, according to scientists. A group of 24 invaders becomes 2,688 invading forces in their swarm attack. With so many participants, it becomes difficult for even a few defending bees to defend their home turf. One unlucky defensive fighter has only a 15% chance of winning this battle alone, but if 10 soldiers help him out he'll fare much better. This means that with help from the rest of his teammates, he has a 95% chance of success! That's a lot of numbers, but they're important to remember if you want to know why defending honeybees tend to win the majority of their battles. 

What's a lot more dangerous than a group of thieves is the evil alliance between thieves and giant ants. Like the soldier bees mentioned earlier, ants are also strong defenders with powerful stingers. The only difference is that ants don't rely on waving their wings for protection, instead they use chemical signals in the form of pheromones to get help from other ants in the colony.

Why Do They Form These Terrifying Swarms?

Honeybees are found in temperate climates all over the world. It’s not uncommon to see them buzzing around your picnic table, or visiting a flowering plant for nectar. But if you’ve ever seen a bunch of honeybees congregating in one place, forming what looks like a giant swarming vortex, you might be wondering just what triggers these large bee clusters?

Honeybee swarms cluster because they need a warm safe space to live. But sometimes they will also form around an area that smells bad like rotting meat (a phenomenon known as bait-balling). These clusters contain drones (males), workers (all female) and guard bees which protect the colony from predators. While the smell of rotting meat may attract more honeybees, it is rare that they would find any food there. 

Bees swarm because their hives can get overcrowded during certain times of year when there is an abundance of food sources and they produce more offspring than usual. When this happens the hive becomes too small to house all those hungry mouths so some honeybees leave in search of a new hive elsewhere. 

If enough bees decide to go then suddenly a group begins to swirl together into what looks like a single swirling ball but is actually hundreds, maybe even thousands, tiny creatures whirling around at high speeds to create warmth and protection from predators - especially birds who love nothing more than swooping down on big juicy bee balls! If the scent of dead animal isn't strong enough to attract more bees, the swarm will eventually break up after about ten minutes or less. The queen stays with her young until she dies or leaves with part of the swarm in search of a new home. Sometimes old queens, ones who have been laying eggs for years, fly off with part of her brood to start her own colony somewhere else. The entire process is pretty incredible and yet still poorly understood by scientists today. We know that being inside a swarm has its benefits - like access to food, water and shelter. But we don’t know why only bees do the wave and how many members are needed before a swarm forms. It could be that when enough members feel threatened by predators such as hawks or hornets, it's better to stay together instead of risking being picked off individually. Or perhaps individual bees joining a moving crowd give themselves better odds against birds looking for lunchtime snacks! Scientists have observed that when they cut the antennae of a few bees in a swarm, it didn’t seem to affect the swarm at all. This suggests that they communicate through touch, sound or pheromones. Whatever the case, what is fascinating is that the forces that lead to a swarm occurring are both social and natural – with honeybees behaving like humans do in a mall or stadium. Whether they're cheering for their favorite team or scoping out fresh recruits for their next startup, we all want to connect with others and be part of something bigger than ourselves. For honeybees, this means coming together to form a swarm. But what's the ultimate purpose of a bee swarm? It turns out that it’s mainly for the safety and well-being of the colony. Honeybees are often at risk from predators like wasps, skunks and bears - as well as climate change - and swarming is their best bet for survival. That’s because a honeybee’s exoskeleton is thinner than that of other insects, making it easier for other animals to penetrate their defenses. It’s for this reason that honeybees swarm and make noise in order to ward off predators. 

In the meantime, we do know that when a swarm breaks up, the bees will continue to perform this behavior as long as there are enough members present - and that each time they do it they have a better chance of survival. The more swarming occurs, the more likely it is that the colony will survive. And that’s just one of the amazing things honeybees do to survive.

How Did it All Start, Anyway?

One day, it's reported, David Tarpy was stung by a honeybee and developed an allergic reaction. Thinking about what triggered his pain, he observed that when honeybees came to investigate his tethered handkerchief, they often gave off a little waggle dance. This raised a question: do honeybees react when they sense their fellow bees dancing? To find out, he set up two observatories of tethered handkerchiefs—one with one bee dancing on it and another with six bees engaged in a wave. Tarpy reasoned that if bees react when they see other members of their colony shaking their bodies in figure-eight movements while hovering in place, then the waving handkerchief would trigger them as well. And it did! In fact, they responded even more enthusiastically than the solitary dancer. When he added a third beehive to his experiment and watched all three dances together, something new happened: The giant bees started doing the wave themselves! It seemed that seeing more than one bee shake its body caused the insects to copy each other, adding another level of complexity. It was this hive movement that first got people talking about doing the wave. It's like they were saying, 'Yeah we want in on this!' said Tarpy. Now scientists believe there are complex feedback loops at work between the leader who starts the motion and those who follow suit. The decision whether or not to join might depend on how many of your comrades have already joined, said Harvard biologist Deborah Gordon, author of Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior. For example, if you're the only bee to start doing the wave, chances are you'll soon stop. But if you see a couple of your friends joining in, you'll probably keep going. They found that when enough dancers shook their bodies near the follower's hive entrance for 30 seconds or so, no more waves occurred for five minutes—it looks like some kind of signal is passed among bees to tell them when it's time to stop. But researchers also found that once those five minutes pass, the message has lost some of its punch, because the next round is usually just as big. After just four to eight minutes, subsequent waves are significantly smaller than the original group. Bees don't seem to mind being interrupted—after every pause, the number of participating bees increased again until everyone wanted in on the action. That's why Tarpy and others now think that these groups of dancers aren't really following any kind of pattern but instead are engaging in random behavior designed to get everyone involved. Think back to junior high school gym class, where one person tries to take over a game by running around wildly until someone tackles him and brings him down. It's the same thing with bees. 

It's a bit of a puzzle to understand why they're doing it, but it doesn't appear to be social bonding, aggression, or anything that seems useful in terms of survival. It's mostly about having fun and maybe feeling good about yourself—not unlike human beings when they do the wave. As for us, it's hard to know exactly what it feels like for a bee when it does the wave. All we can do is watch them and try to imagine the world from their perspective.