Fascinating - Bees vs. Hornets

[agusto]

Tactical warfare is as old as life itself it seems:

A horent on a reconnaissance mission detects a beehive. The bees lure the scout into an ambush within the hive, kill it and afterwards try to remove they mark the hornet left in order to try to save them from a mass attack:

However the bees fail to completely remove the mark the hornets scout left and are soon attacked by a superior enemy. A task force of 30 hornets soon arrives at the hive and mercyless slaughters the defenders. The way the Hornets organize themselves during the attack (they communicate via chemicals) reminds me of what could be called a "decentralized command structure". At the end of the vid they even "resupply" each other:

Giant hornets invading a hive of yellow hornets:

[sburke]

I first learned the difference when some "friend" of mine took it into his head to chuck a horseshoe at a hornet's nest with no warning when I was not more then 25" away from it.

[agusto]

Very responsible and thoughtful of him. I wonder if both or just one of his brains two neurons were involved in making the decision to throw the horseshoe.

[sburke]

Yeah really, I might not have minded if the hornet's had at least correctly identified their attacker. Unfortunately I must have looked guiltier.

[Michael Emrys]

Unfortunately I must have looked guiltier.

Nah, you were just closer. I trust that once the stings healed you succeeded in ambushing your former friend in a dark alley and administering a not-excessively-gentle lesson as to why that kind of behavior is not widely appreciated.

Michael