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Good evening all -
Fred is on the money here - although this tidbit does not exactly answer
why the wasps flew off with the dead bodies , but , interestingly
cannibalism or the the removal from the nest of dead or diseased individuals
by nestmate workers is common among all social insects (Wilson , 1971). In
the honey bee nest a small group of workers (the undertakers) specialize in
the task of removing dead adults. A consequence of of undertaking is that
the nests rarely contain dead adult bees. Undertakers probably recognize
dead bees by their changed olfactory cues . Some ant species recognize dead
and diseased nestmates because they develop an odour rich in oleic acid.
I agree it would be interesting to find what kind of wasp/hornet these were
? ?
Hope this helps - DB
-----Original Message-----
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
On Behalf Of Frederick W. Schueler
Sent: October-02-10 9:14 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Wasp question
On 10/2/2010 9:02 PM, andy dean wrote:
> That is all very fascinating....but nobody seems to be able to answer
> the more intriguing
> ( to us ) question....why did the two wasps fly off with dead ones?
* what kind of wasps were these? Social Insects often manipulate the
position of the corpses of their dead nestmates, so speculation would
depend on what kind of wasps these were, and the spatial relationship to
nests of that species.
fred.
===================================================
>
>>
>> *From:* naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca
>> <mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
>> [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] *On Behalf Of *andy dean
>> *Sent:* September-25-10 12:57 PM
>> *To:* naturens@chebucto.ns.ca <mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
>> *Subject:* [NatureNS] Wasp question
>> _Attention of any budding or professional entyologists in the group._
>> One morning recently my wife and I discovered about 50 dead wasps
>> on the garage floor , just inside the door, and attributed it to a
>> natural 'end-of-season' phenomenon....does that seem correct?
>> More bemusing was the fact that whilst we sat with the garage door
>> open, drinking our morning coffee, we twice witnessed a wasp fly
>> in and after examining a corpse lift it and fly off with
>> it.....anybody know what that was all about?
>> It was mind-boggling to realize that the weight of the corpse in
>> relation to the live wasp would have been the equivalent of me
>> lifting my wife bodily off the ground and flying off with her
>> ......a sobering thought !
>> Andy and Lelia Dean
>> 86 Baden Powell Drive
>> Kentville, N.S.
>> (902) 678-6243
>
--
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
now in the field on the Thirty Years Later Expedition -
http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/thirty/thirtyintro.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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