How dangerous are “killer bees”? Can they be killed?

When it comes to killer bees, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

Is it the funny Autobot in the movie "Transformers", or the killer bee with a pair of sharp jaws and deadly venom?

To be honest, based on the character and camp of the "Bumblebee" in the movie, it is impossible to associate it with the killer bees in the insect world. What is going on?

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If any careful friends have watched the movie "Bumblebee" released in 2019, they will find that the English title of the movie is actually "Bumblebee". Bumblebee is translated as bumblebee or bumblebee in the dictionary, so it is normal to translate it as bumblebee in the movie, but if you look into this translation, there are still some problems.

Image source: Bumblebee movie poster

What kind of bee is a bumblebee?

The easiest way to figure out the above question is to understand what kind of bee a bumblebee is.

There are more than 250 species of bumblebees in the world, and they all belong to the genus Bombus, which is a genus under the family Apidae. So bumblebees are closely related to honey bees, and they look similar to honey bees, except that they are a few sizes larger and covered with hair, giving them a "bear-like" look.

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Species within the genus Bombus vary greatly in color . We can simply distinguish them by the color of the soft hairs on their abdomens, and divide bumblebees into three categories: white-tailed, red-tailed, and turmeric-tailed .

In the early years, scientists divided species within the genus Bombus into 38 subgenera (a taxonomic level below the genus in taxonomy) based on information such as color, morphology, and DNA sequences. A 2008 study further reduced these 38 subgenera to 18 subgenera through a phylogenetic tree that included all Bombus species.

Bumblebees are naturally distributed in all areas except Antarctica and Oceania , especially in the temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They are adapted to cold and humid climates . After all, their hair is not grown for nothing, right?

Like honey bees, bumblebees are also social insects. However, the queen of bumblebees is not a pampered lady. Instead, like ordinary worker bees, she has to work hard to support her family.

Every early spring, the queen bee of the bumblebee quietly wakes up from hibernation, and the awakening of the queen bee means that a bee colony is about to be born . The queen bee will look for caves abandoned by other animals to build her own nest.

Image source: References

After building her nest, the queen bee will build an egg chamber and lay the first batch of eggs, about 8-14 eggs. After laying eggs, the queen bee will go out to collect nectar to feed the larvae that are about to hatch. As the first batch of larvae mature and emerge as worker bees, this small bee colony begins to get on the right track of development and continues to expand.

As summer turns to autumn, bumblebees enter the mating season , which also heralds the decline of a bumblebee colony . Male bumblebees die one after another after mating, while female bumblebees hibernate in caves they dug, waiting for the arrival of spring to start a new life cycle.

What kind of bee is a bumblebee?

After talking about bumblebees, let’s continue to look at what species is called “bumblebee” in the insect world.

In fact, bumblebee is a general term for a bunch of species of the genus Bombus , and hornet is also a general term for a type of bee. Yes, those are the shadows of everyone’s childhood, the killer bees with explosive temperaments and the tendency to attack people.

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The hornets that we avoid in daily life are mostly referred to as wasps or hornets . There are many types of wasps, belonging to the family Vespidae in the suborder Slender under the order Hymenoptera, while hornets are insects in the subfamily Polidoninae under the family Vespidae. In English, both wasps and hornets are classified as wasps, but the scope of wasps is even wider. But both wasps and hornets (wasp) are not the same thing as bumblebees (Bumblebees) under the family Apidae .

Whether it is honey bees or bumblebees, they all make a living by collecting nectar and pollen. As for the real bumblebees, such as wasps and hornets, except for a few species that also collect nectar, the rest are almost all fierce hunters, and small insects including honey bees are their prey .

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It is no exaggeration to say that a few dozen Asian wasps (also known as Asian giant hornets) can kill or injure a beehive. In addition to being "tyrannical" in their native habitat, Asian giant hornets are also very "arrogant" in the new territories they invade. After invading North America, they were once called "killer hornets" because of their strong aggressiveness and toxicity.

In general, the Chinese word "bumblebee" is actually a rather confusing and ambiguous common name in the eyes of entomologists. If we are not sure what to use, we can just use bumblebee, wasp and hornet to describe it .

No matter what kind of "Bumblebee" it is,

It has important ecological significance

Although they are both "Bumblebees", it is obvious that one is loved and the other is hated.

The most popular thing is the bumblebee . As an important pollinator in nature, bumblebees have very important ecological value, especially for the pollination of plants in high altitude areas, many of which rely on bumblebees wearing thick sweaters. But according to research reports, the bumblebee population in the entire northern hemisphere is now declining. The destruction of habitats and the abuse of pesticides have made some bumblebee species endangered.

Fortunately, people have begun to take action to protect bumblebees. In 2017, the United States listed the rusty-patched bumblebee as an endangered species, protecting it. In addition, the government has also protected bumblebees by regulating the use of pesticides and planting more nectar plants in green belts.

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The most hated ones are wasps and hornets . As we have mentioned before, wasps are very aggressive and poisonous, and there are often news reports of wasps attacking humans. In addition, wasps can also harm the bee colonies raised by beekeepers, making beekeepers want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

But here, what I want to tell you is that although hornets and wasps can hurt people and destroy bee breeding, they are also an indispensable part of maintaining the ecology. When you see them, the most correct way to deal with them is to stay away from them .

References:

[1] Valterová, I., Martinet, B., Michez, D., Rasmont, P., & Brasero, N. (2019). Sexual attraction: a review of bumblebee male pheromones. Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C, 74(9-10), 233-250.

[2] Williams, PH, Cameron, SA, Hines, HM, Cederberg, B., & Rasmont, P. (2008). A simplified subgeneric classification of the bumblebees (genus Bombus). Apidologie, 39(1), 46-74.

[3] Wang, L., Wu, J., Li, K., Sadd, BM, Guo, Y., Zhuang, D., ... & Li, J. (2019). Dynamic changes of gut microbial communities of bumble bee queens through important life stages. Msystems, 4(6), e00631-19.

[4] Novotny, JL, Reeher, P., Varvaro, M., Lybbert, A., Smith, J., Mitchell, RJ, & Goodell, K. (2021). Bumble bee species distributions and habitat associations in the Midwestern USA, a region of declining diversity. Biodiversity and Conservation, 30(3), 865-887.

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Author: EVEE (School of Life Sciences, Peking University)

Producer: China Science Expo

Submitted by: Computer Information Network Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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