Giant Honeybees Use Shimmering ‘Mexican Waves’ To Repel Predatory Wasps

The phenomenon of “shimmering” in giant honeybees, in which hundreds—or even thousands—of individual honeybees flip their abdomens upwards within a split-second to produce a Mexican Wave-like pattern across the bee nest, has received much interest but both its precise mode of action and its purpose have long remained a mystery.

In a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE this week, researchers at the University of Graz, Austria, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK, report the finding that shimmering—a remarkable capacity of rapid communication in giant honeybees—acts as a defensive mechanism, which repels predatory hornets, forcing them to hunt free-flying bees, further afield, rather than foraging bees directly from the honeybee nest.

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Tagged as: Austria, Bees, Giant Honeybees, Honeybees, Hornets, Nests, PLoS ONE, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, United Kingdom, University of Graz

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