This video of a bumblebee "helping" a friend out of a spider web has been making the Internet rounds recently. The narrator asks for "experts" to tell us what's happening. And Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex answered the call.

In a post at the Conversation, Goulson explains what his expert eye sees in this video. Spoiler alert: It isn't a bee-rescue:

A recent video shows what the photographer believes to be a bumblebee diving in to rescue a fellow bee caught in a web, stinging the attacking spider in the process. This is unintentionally misleading, and not what it seems.

Within the nest, bumblebees can and will attack and repel invaders, but they would never come to the aid of another bee away from the nest. Away from the nest the workers single-mindedly pursue the solitary endeavour of finding flowers and collecting food as swiftly as possible. If any of them run into trouble then they are on their own.

In the video, the first bee is struggling to escape from a spider's web on a windowsill. Clearly, the bee has become trapped indoors and while bashing into the windowpane in trying to escape has become entangled in the spider's web. The spider is nervously edging closer, but this is a big and energetic bee, prey that looks far too big for it.

Dramatically, a second bee that must also have got trapped in the house then comes crashing in, falls on its back and thrashes around a bit. As the second bee flails around on its back, it looks in one frame as if it stings the spider.

In fact, what one can see is the rear leg of the bee which happens to line up with the tip of the abdomen for a moment. It is too long and thick for a bee sting. The spider runs away, and the bees break free (as bumblebees usually do from spider's webs).



[The Conversation via Metafilter]