Not about bees, but an anecdote about beheading hornets
On vacation we had absolutely sweet friendly wasps, not aggressive at all, that never even tried to sting and that I've given small pieces of sausage because they were particularly wild about them. If these pieces were a little larger, then the wasps always looked like helicopters with difficulties taking off... but it was amazing to see what large pieces they managed..in the end .. to bring far away. And how they became more and more tame day by day, so that they in the end even crawled around on us quite peacefully. We really had the impression that they understood that we had nothing against them. Their drinking behavior I found particularly sweet .. when we gave them some water or lemonade to drink. They also got on my hands or took a break on my head.
There were always a lot of them at our table and it became a daily morning ritual.
We even tried to protect them from the really fierce giant hornets that always hunted for the wasps in a specific spot on our campsite.
Until then, I've never seen totally aggressive hornets hunt wasps only to decapitate them.
I still sometimes ask myself to this day what they wanted with the heads, because these hornets hunted the wasps,only bc of their heads. Each time one of the hornets grabbed a wasp, it severed the body in such a way that the hornet ended up holding the wasp's head and the much larger remainder fell to the ground and then the hornet flew away with the head only to come back at some point. The whole swarm did this. As if they were collecting heads. The ground in that particular area was full of decapitated wasps.
I watched this from time to time because I found the thing with the heads so terrifying, bc I never before noticed hornets only hunting for wasp heads. What did they want with the heads? I'ld have rather guessed they throw the head away and take the body with them. 1 hornet could have easily flown away the entire dead wasp, but no, it was always just the heads. The whole time we were there on vacation. At first I thought that there might be special nutrients in the head, but they always only took the heads. Most probably it was for the brood, bc they flew the heads away to come back right after. Do you have an idea, why they only always took the heads?
There were always a lot of them at our table and it became a daily morning ritual.
We even tried to protect them from the really fierce giant hornets that always hunted for the wasps in a specific spot on our campsite.
Until then, I've never seen totally aggressive hornets hunt wasps only to decapitate them.
I still sometimes ask myself to this day what they wanted with the heads, because these hornets hunted the wasps,only bc of their heads. Each time one of the hornets grabbed a wasp, it severed the body in such a way that the hornet ended up holding the wasp's head and the much larger remainder fell to the ground and then the hornet flew away with the head only to come back at some point. The whole swarm did this. As if they were collecting heads. The ground in that particular area was full of decapitated wasps.
I watched this from time to time because I found the thing with the heads so terrifying, bc I never before noticed hornets only hunting for wasp heads. What did they want with the heads? I'ld have rather guessed they throw the head away and take the body with them. 1 hornet could have easily flown away the entire dead wasp, but no, it was always just the heads. The whole time we were there on vacation. At first I thought that there might be special nutrients in the head, but they always only took the heads. Most probably it was for the brood, bc they flew the heads away to come back right after. Do you have an idea, why they only always took the heads?
Sun or moon?
