h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lets see how this one goes.

If a hornet gets into a bees nest they will kill all the bees and eat all the honey. 30 hornets will wipe out an entire nest of 30,000 bees in a few hours. (They bite their heads off)

However, one species of bee has developed a unique defense.

What is it ?

More than one head.

Do they bury their heads, like and ostrich?

I love the idea of more than one head - very DNA ~ but no.

Good lateral thinking their Lil - but no.

This defense method kills the hornets.

do they make the holes in their hives too small for hornets to get through or is it something like having "bouncer" bees that are poisonous to the hoernets standing guard?

mini

saw a docco about japanees bees and hornets

the bees grab onto the hornet and wrap themselves all over it in a ball of living bees with a hornet core

the temprature goes up in the ball and kills the hornet the bees can survive tempretures one degree higher than the hornet can, so they dont die

Oh yeah I heard about that now you've mentioned it.

Ostriches don't bury their heads in the sand.

They're birds. They'd suffocate.

That must be why there aren't many of them

Taf's grabbed this one.

The bees surround the hornet and cuddle it. Then they vibrate their bodies gently, until the temperature reaches 47 degrees C. No problem for a honey bee - but fatal to the hornet, which dies at 46 degrees.

Interstingly this has to be a learnt defense because only Japanese bees know how to use "The Death Cuddle !"

3 points for Taf

also

bees only defend the entrance to the hive if a hornet gets in through the side, like through a hole the bees in the interior ignore it, its the gaurd bees at the entrance who spray pheremone over an attacker that causes the others to attack it, if an attacker has no attack pheremone on it the bees assume it belongs in the hive and ignore it

the bees at the enterance also regulate the tempreture of the hive by fanning their wings and blowing cooler air into the hive

Clive's right about the ostriches, they put their heads on the ground to look like bushes I'm told.

I'll bung some extra points to Taff for QI there too.

<>

the myth about ostriches sticking their heads in the sand comes from thier habit of lomering their heads to the ground to look for enemys

with heads held high they have to be able to pierce the camoflage of the threat

with heads near the ground the can spot the contrast between the threat and the sky, and then take the apropriate action