1982] 
Burgett & Akratanakul — Apis mellifera 
349 
once again absconded. Several guard hornets were at the hive 
entrance during the exodus of the bees. The hornets physically 
engaged scores of worker bees, mauling and tossing them to the 
ground. The queen was seen emerging from the hive at 0838 h. She 
was immediately approached by a hornet which attacked her. She 
was able to disengage herself from the hornet at the cost of the tarsi 
from her left front leg. She flew to the branch of a small tree ca. 
three m from the hive and the worker bees began clustering around 
her. 
With the abandonment of the hive the hornets began to concen- 
trate on the undefended brood nest. From 0845 to 1705 h hornets 
were observed on 109 occasions to exit the hive with brood as prey. 
The time individual hornets spent inside the hive was significantly 
shorter, ave. 13.1 ±1 1.3 min (n = 127), than on the 21st when bees 
were present to mount a defense of the colony. The number of 
foraging events by individual hornets showed a corresponding 
increase with the departure of the bees. On the 21st, with the bees 
present, eight marked hornets were observed to conduct 94 com- 
plete forays upon the colony for an average of 10.6 ±6.4 trips per 
hornet. On the 23rd eight marked hornets completed 171 trips for an 
average of 21.4 ±6.0 trips per hornet. 
An examination of the hive interior on December 24 revealed that 
the hornets had completely removed all larvae and pupae from the 
brood comb. The honey storage comb contained less than an esti- 
mated 500 g of honey. Hornet traffic at the hive was considerably 
reduced from the previous three days. Occasional observations of 
the hive throughout the day revealed at most, six hornets still 
engorging on the remaining honey. 
Apis mellifera is an introduced species to Southeast Asia (Akra- 
tanakul 1976). The colony we observed came from stock originally 
imported from California in 1979. Absconding by A. mellifera in 
temperate climates is an unusual phenomenon. However, abscond- 
ing by other species of tropical Apis is a common defensive strategy 
(Seeley et al. 1982). It is interesting to note that A. mellifera from 
temperate origins still retains absconding as a defense mechanism in 
the face of severe predation. 
