photo credit: macropoulos
We all know that the black and yellow markings found on wasps and hornets are a warning sign to state that the insect may be carrying a painful sting depending on the species. The latest research from Tel Aviv University though throws a completely different light on the markings – at least for the Oriental Hornet or Oriental Wasp.
The researchers have discovered that the wasp takes energy from the sun and converts it into electrical energy – and the process takes place in the brown and yellow markings of the wasp. Studies of the Oriental hornet has previously shown that the wasp is much more active in the afternoon rather than the morning when most other wasp and bees species are much more active. Other studies had shown that the wasps were much more active a digging when the sun was at it’s strongest.
On a more detailed level the brown shell of the wasp was found to be made from a series of grooves which caused the light to split into beams. The yellow stripe contained minute depressions which captured the beams and the yellow pigment xanthopterin did the actual conversion.
But not only did the Oriental Hornet have this unique energy collection system from the sun – the only known animal equivalent of photosynthesis – but it also had it’s own unique for of heat pump to keep it’s body temperature lower than that of the surrounding air temperature. The research also discovered that the hornet used extremely accurate acoustic techniques to ‘see’ it’s way around it’s nest as it is completely dark within a wasp nest.
The team are now working on ways to replicate the solar energy plant of the wasp to try and use the same processes for improved solar energy plants. This replication of natural processes is known as bio-mimicry and if success could lead to new ways to produce sustainable energy using highly efficient solar panels.
“The interesting thing here is that a living biological creature does a thing like that,” says physicist Prof. David Bergman of Tel Aviv University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, who was part of the team that made discovery. “The hornet may have discovered things we do not yet know.”
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