#HTE

Honeybees Work Together to Create a Crazy Visual Effect as a Defense Mechanism

Unlike Americans, a community of honeybees can all work together to protect the overall group. Take a look at this:

That’s a group of Apis dorsata, a/k/a Southeast Asian giant honeybees, all coordinating their motions to provide a shimmering effect. According to Science Daily, this visual effect “acts as a defensive mechanism, which repels predatory hornets” who are presumably freaked out by the spectacle.

In the video below, you can see the shimmering enacted by multiple hives at once, which is pretty trippy. (You’ll also see that patient hornets still find a way to pick off prey.)