Data from: Bees at war: interspecific battles and nest usurpation in stingless bees

We provide the first evidence for inter-specific warfare in bees, a spectacular natural phenomenon that involves a series of aerial battles and leads to thousands of fatalities from both attacking and defending colonies. Through molecular analyses of fights at a study hive of the Australian stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, we revealed an attack launched by a related species, T. hockingsi, which has only recently extended its habitat into southeastern Queensland. Following a succession of attacks by the same T. hockingsi colony over a four-month period, the defending T. carbonaria colony was defeated and the hive usurped, with the winning colony installing a new queen. We complemented our direct observations with a longitudinal study of over 260 hives over five years, and found interspecies hive changes, which were likely to be usurpation events, occurring in 46 Tetragonula hives over this period. We discuss how fighting swarms and hive usurpation fit with theoretical predictions on the evolution of fatal fighting, and highlight the many unexplained features of these battles that warrant further study.

本研究首次提供了蜜蜂种间战争的实证证据——这一壮观的自然现象包含多场空中交锋，会导致进攻方与防守方蜂群总计数千只个体死亡。通过对澳大利亚无刺蜂（Australian stingless bee）碳色无刺蜂（Tetragonula carbonaria）一处研究蜂箱内的打斗行为开展分子分析，我们发现此次袭击来自近段时间才将分布范围拓展至昆士兰州东南部的近缘物种霍金斯无刺蜂（T. hockingsi）。在同一霍金斯无刺蜂蜂群连续四个月发动多次袭击后，防守方碳色无刺蜂蜂群战败，其蜂箱被侵占，获胜蜂群随即安置了新蜂王。我们还通过一项为期五年、覆盖超260个蜂箱的纵向研究对直接观测结果进行了补充，在此期间共发现46处无刺蜂属（Tetragonula）蜂箱发生跨物种蜂箱易主事件，这类事件大概率为侵占行为。本研究探讨了打斗蜂群与蜂箱侵占行为如何契合致死打斗演化的相关理论预测，并指出此类交锋中尚有诸多未被阐明的特征，有待后续研究深入探索。