An international squad of ecologists have happen upon grounds of a massive Game of Thrones - elan war between two species of stingless bee in Brisbane , Australia . These bees battled to the death for months on end , all over willpower of a honey - filled hive , in a massacre that would make George R. R. Martin proud . Paul Cunningham of Queensland University of Technology is lead generator of the paper print in the journalThe American Naturalist .
Tetragonula carbonariais a species of stingless bee native to Australia . They are unremarkably regarded as sugarbag bee because of the love they make in their nettle rash . While this dear is desire by humans for consumption , it also makes the bee a target for invasion by other colonies who seek to control the huge stores of intellectual nourishment . K of spoiler will deign upon the hive , ready to fight down to the death , usurping the home colony and taking control of the territory . It was ab initio assumed that these wars would occur between different colonies of the same species , but Cunningham ’s squad found that this was not the type .
" The defending settlement was , as we expected , Tetragonula carbonaria , but the attacking colony turn out to be a related to species originate from further compass north , calledTetragonula hockingsi , ” carbon monoxide gas - author James Hereward said in apress loss .
A swarm ofhockingsiworker beesblitzedthecarbonariahive , draw out bee and mercilessly kill them . The ultimate goal of thehockingsibees was to get their own queen in there , therefore claim ascendency of the hive and its honey . Thoughcarbonariaandhockingsiare both stingless species , they are unbelievably formidable fighters due to their strong jaw and unceasing committedness . When opposing bee latch onto one another to defend , they never permit go .
" Neither the attacker nor defender survives in these one - on - one dying battles , during which a carpet of all in and dying bees can be ensure on the ground . It is a unmixed numbers game as to who gain ground , " Cunningham add . " It took three consecutive attacks over several weeks before thehockingsibees won out . When they eventually broke through the defenses , they smothered the beehive in a huge swarm , pitilessly ejecting the resident workers , drone and vernal queens . It was slaughter ! "
month after the scrap ceased and the bee had settle , the squad performed hereditary analysis of the bees currently living in the beehive . It substantiate that thehockingsicolony had successfully overrule thecarbonariabees . The current fairy of the hive was ahockingsi , a girl of the queen whose army led the attack .
This melee was not an isolated incident . The team studied 250 hives over the grade of five class , finding evidence of 46 separate bee slaughters , though the consequence were not always predictable .
" And thehockingsibees are not always the succeeder , ” Cunningham concluded . " We still have many questions to answer , such as what incite the attacks , and whether the young in the usurped hive are save and rear as striver , or killed outright . "
