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From:
Adam Finkelstein <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Wed, 28 Jun 1995 17:48:22 +22300129
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From: [log in to unmask] (Bernd)
Newsgroups: sci.bio.entomology.misc
Subject: Wasp vivisecting Bee
Date: 25 Jun 1995 00:53:15 GMT
Organization: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
 
 
Yesterday morning I made the following observation:
 
A wasp was "fighting" (I'm not sure if the wasp did actually hunt
the bee, but it looked like the bee was still alive during the
process I describe next) with a bee and after that did the following:
 
I was able to hear certain "clicks" and later realized what the
wasp had done: In addition to cutting off the legs of the insect,
it cleanly separated the torax from the abdomen and then the head of
the bee. Then the wasp took the torax and flew away with it.
 
I still have the rests of the bee. What I would like to know is:
 
What is so interesting about the torax of an insect? (I have been
lucky a long time ago, and observed a wasp hunting a much heavier
spider in an avocado tree. They fell together to earth, and after
a short fight, the wasp pulled the motionless body of the spider
to a prefabricated hole on the floor. I know that story: the wasp
lays its eggs into the fresh and still alive victim, which is then
the aliment for the growing larvae). But the torax itself is dead,
or all its cells will soon die, and: why not the abdomen, why did
the wasp so selectively cut out the torax??
 
A prof here told me (after my description of the wasp), that it may
be a yellow jacket, which is not a chilean species, but was introduced
by accident and is now very common from north to south (emmm... there
is not much "west to east" in chile :):)
 
Is this a typical behaviour for yellow jackets?
 
I'm curious to know the answer. Thanks in advance,
                                                   bernd rohwedder

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