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Researchers have uncovered a startling, “previously undescribed” way that some honeybees warn each other of potential predators.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Heather Mattila of Wellesley College, told theNew York Timesthat “there is something very human and recognizable in the sounds.”
She and her team placed recorders inside of hives to document the unique sound after Mattila heard the screams in Vietnam in 2013 while working on another study, theNew York Timesreported. They also put video cameras outside of hives' entrances.
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“Apis ceranacolonies produced hisses, brief stop signals and longer pipes under hornet-free conditions. However, hornet-attack stimuli—andV. sororworkers in particular—triggered dramatic increases in signalling rates within colonies,” the study’s abstract states.
“Soundscapes were cacophonous whenV. sororpredators were directly outside of nests, in part because of frenetic production of antipredator pipes, a previously undescribed signal,” the study says. “Antipredator pipes share acoustic traits with alarm shrieks, fear screams and panic calls of primates, birds and meerkats.”
“Based on the timing of their production, it is reasonable to speculate that, at a minimum, antipredator pipes inform nestmates about the presence of a hornet outside the nest,” the study says.
source: people.com
