Nature\'s wonders (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 18:40 (4650 days ago) @ David Turell

Squirrelling away food for the babies:-Embalming wasps
 -European beewolf paralysing a bee.Wikipedia, Alvesgaspar
 
Female digger wasps (Philanthus triangulum, commonly known as European beewolves) take great care in preparing the food their young eat, and with good reason. The paralyzed honeybees that a beewolf feeds her offspring often get infected with fungal strains that can kill the wasp larvae. In order to prevent this, beewolf mothers coat the honeybees with an oily secretion from their postpharyngeal glands that deters fungal growth and slows the desiccation of the bees. Throughout their lifetimes, beewolf females can embalm up to 100 honeybees—each bee receiving a coat of secretion that's up to 8 percent of the beewolf's weight. Not surprisingly, this protective embalming comes at a cost to the mothers and their future offspring, according to research published this month in Animal Behavior. Over time, females are able to produce less embalming fluid per bee, putting future generations of wasps at a greater risk for fungal infections.