Here in Northern California there’s Carpenter bees that big. I see them all the time...
World's largest bee ‘rediscovered’ after 38 years
41–46 of 46 posts
Re: World's largest bee ‘rediscovered’ after 38 years
#42What is it about this particular environment that allows this mutation (i.e., larger in size) to survive here, but no where else in the world? Also, in theory, could it be even larger, or is there some limit to how large a bee could be?
What vertline3 said. This would appear to be island gigantism. An island is small and not well connected to the rest of the world, so the organisms that do happen to be there often adapt into different niches than their mainland origin species, since whatever would normally fill that niche isn't around.
Re: World's largest bee ‘rediscovered’ after 38 years
#43Alternate title: "Bee finally declared winner of world's longest running game of hide and seek!"
"38 year old bee loses game of hide and seek"
Re: World's largest bee ‘rediscovered’ after 38 years
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
And its size is comparable to a domestic pussycat.
Ohhh, you haven't seen nothing until you've seen the Asian giant hornet. Nearly two inches long, with a quarter-inch-long stinger that's gauranteed to cause immense pain, and may kill you even if you're not allergic. These insects are as vicious as they are huge. If just one invades a honeybee hive, it turns the hive into an insect-scale scene from Attack on Titan , forcing its way in through the entrance, slaughteri…
This video amazed me when I first saw it. (I hope there’s a better quality one out there)
It’s just amazing how much stronger the hornets are.
Re: World's largest bee ‘rediscovered’ after 38 years
#45Specimens sold to collectors for several thousand pounds, don't think they're going to survive long unless some enterprising "poacher" breeds them.
I wouldn't bet on a thick order book. The first one sold for 7,000 pounds; the second one sold for 3,200. Continuing that trend would mean an infinite number of bees would sell for less than 14,000 pounds total. There just aren't that many rich bee collectors.
Well let's say there's one hive, would someone sell 7000 bees -- the price floor appears to be £6-8 (based on pinned stag beetle price on eBay).
So, I reckon someone could get a minimum of £7k for collecting the hive. No need to collect infinite bees!
Re: World's largest bee ‘rediscovered’ after 38 years
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't bet on a thick order book. The first one sold for 7,000 pounds; the second one sold for 3,200. Continuing that trend would mean an infinite number of bees would sell for less than 14,000 pounds total. There just aren't that many rich bee collectors.
Well let's say there's one hive, would someone sell 7000 bees -- the price floor appears to be £6-8 (based on pinned stag beetle price on eBay). So, I reckon someone could get a minimum of £7k for collecting the hive. No need to collect infinite bees!
Absolutely wrong. The fact that stag beetles never trade below 6 pounds on eBay does not indicate that you can sell as many as you want at that price. It indicates that nobody finds it worth their time to make sales at a lower price. How many of those sales actually occur in, say, a 12-month window?
If you have 7,000 dead bees, you can try to sell them for 1 pound each, but you'll quickly run through everyone who wants one and be stuck with a bunch of leftover bees.