Defensive Waves Ripple Through Honey Bee Colony
While building a comb off the branch of a tree, a colony of honey bees in Vietnam engaged in a defensive wave, a process that sends murmuring ripples down the line in order to keep predators away. While this wave function is purely utilitarian, the resulting audio-visual effect is absolutely fascinating.
This 'wave' is utilized against wasps and is referred to as 'shimmering' behavior or defense waving. Bees in the outer layer thrust their abdomens 90 in an upward direction and shake them in a synchronous way. "The signal is transmitted to nearby workers that also adopt the posture, thus creating a visible, and audible 'ripple' effect across the face of the comb.
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