"European honeybees have the most to fear from this deadly predator. V. mandarinia are social hornets, and they are the only known wasp species to coordinate attacks on bee colonies, which they carry out with deadly precision.
Attacks on beehives happen in three phases, ADW says. First, the hornets hunt individual bees from a hive that has been chemically marked by one of their sisters. The hornets rip the bees to pieces, carrying the dismembered bits back to their own hive and feeding them to hornet larvae.
Finally, the hornets move into the defeated hive. They chew up the abandoned bee larvae and pupae into a bee-brood paste, which the hornets also feed to their own young. During this stage, the hornets are especially aggressive and may attack animals and humans that are unfortunate enough to wander too close to the occupied beehive, WSU says."
"European honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica) are powerless against giant hornet attacks, but Japanese honeybees (Apis cerana japonica) have evolved a unique defense against the marauding hornets. They form "hot defensive bee balls," swarming individual hornets and vibrating their flight muscles to generate heat. Inside the ball, temperatures build to 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius), cooking the trapped hornets to death.
Japanese honeybees are the only bee species with special brain cells that allow them to collectively thermoregulate just enough heat to kill the hornets without hurting themselves, Live Science previously reported."
Very interesting, and scary, article!
