A video doing the rounds online at the second shows an unusual event – it ’s either the lovely thing you ’ll see today , or a rather sorry rite .
The video in interrogative sentence features a unhappily - expired bee circumvent by pink petal . As you watch , you take in the petals are rustling , and are actually covered in ants . As you continue watching , you see that the ants are the I dragging the petals over to the bee and placing them in a circle around it .
It ’s probably about now you are reminded of the scene inThe Hunger Gameswhen Katniss creates a improvised funeral for Rue with wildflowers . Is that what is happening here ?
Well , societal insect like ants , bees , and WASP are the only creatures – apart from humans – that have acomplex behavioral strategyfor the disposal of their stagnant . Like most thing , they do this for the good of the mathematical group ; the radical comes first .
And , like in any colony or hive , the insects are divided into groups by whatever their main project is . These divisions of labor include those tasked with the removal of the dead or the dying to keep disease and infection spreading among the quietus of society . And yes , they are called mortician .
For ant , once they have detected a beat or dying brother by the chemical released from them , the undertakers will transmit the dead outside the colony and take them a safe distance away , often to the same seat – an ant cemetery if you will . For bee , it ’s not quite so romantic . The funeral undertaker drag them out of the beehive and then fly off and dump them , which could be what happened here .
It may be a nice thought that the ant find the toss away organic structure of the bee and feel it should have the funeral rites befitting its important height in nature – and the earth . However , that ’s highly unlikely unless we ’re in a Disney movie .
One theory floating online is that they ’re actually looking at a pretty striking dinner party , and are using the petals , which , as they decay , give off a nipping smell to disguise the chemical substance given off by the beat dead body , and deter other scavenger from happen upon their prize .
However , David Notton , Senior Curator of Hymenoptera ( the order of insects that includes ants , bee , and wasps ) at the Natural History Museum , London , has another hint .
" [ It ’s ] hard to say as the locality and type of emmet is not unclouded , but most probably they are harvester ant ( vegetarian ) take petal back to their nest as food , and a dead bee has somehow ended up on top of the nest incoming , " he told IFLScience . " That is to say the bee may be more of an obstacle for the ants if it is preventing them taking food down their burrow . "
Thomas O’shea - Wheller , a postdoctoral researcher of entomology at Louisiana State University , had two further theory .
" I think it is one of two things ; either a ' rubbish hammock ' for the ant , upon which they are stacking various decomposing items ( let in a bumblebee and petals ) . Or , a food store upon which they are storing items that they have foraged for , " he told IFLScience .
" Either style , the key point is that they seem to be treating the bee and petal as the same form of imagination , or waste Cartesian product , thus the appearance of a ' bee funeral ' . "
So not actually quixotic or dark , just life .
