According to a study, hornets use an incredible technique to defend themselves from attacks by Asian hornets. According to this, insects belonging to bees fall to the ground when they are attacked by the invasive species.
The dark bee (Bombus terrestris), common in Europe, can free itself directly from the wasp’s claws or use its stinger to ward off the wasp (Vespa velutina), as researchers write in the journal “Communications Biology”.
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Unlike honey bees, which are relatively defenseless against attacks from predatory insects in Southeast Asia, the defense of drones is almost always successful, according to a statement from the University of Exeter. Researchers from the universities of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela were also involved in the study.
“Asian hornets attack a wide range of insects, including bees, but little is known about their impact on other pollinators,” said Thomas O’Shea-Weller, from the University of Exeter’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability.
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Despite the success in defending against attacks, the presence of the Asian hornet, which is also spreading in Germany, has a negative effect on bee populations, as the study also shows. Consequently, bee colonies grow more slowly when there are many Asian hornets in the area. The exact reason for this is not yet known, O’Shea-Weller said. However, it is logical that wasps have reduced the success of bee colonies, for example because defending against attacks requires a lot of energy.
For the study, researchers placed twelve commercially bred bee colonies in twelve locations in the Spanish province of Pontevedra, in locations with varying densities of Asian wasp presence. Bee nests were weighed every two days to determine growth.