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Scientists Discover Solar Powered Hornets

Posted by samzenpus on from the beware-of-the-electric-bees dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "The oriental hornet is more active during the day, and tends to become even more active as the temperature rises. And now scientists have discovered the reason: the hornets are solar powered. It turns out that the distinctive yellow stripe on the hornet's abdomen is actually full of tiny protrusions that gather sunlight and harness it for energy. The insect also features a special pigment, called xanthopterin, that helps with the process."

17 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Solar powered eh... by mswhippingboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guess that would make one a "green" hornet...

    Sorry, couldn't resist...

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    Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
    1. Re:Solar powered eh... by MarkRose · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ouch, that one stung.

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      Be relentless!
    2. Re:Solar powered eh... by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Green" does seem to be a buzzword these days.

    3. Re:Solar powered eh... by cvnautilus · · Score: 4, Funny

      They couldn't get enough energy from pollen, so they moved to plan bee.

  2. What does the wasp do with it? by plover · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since xanthopterin converts light directly into electricity, according to the research, what exactly does the wasp do with the electricity produced? Does it directly excite muscles? Is there a tiny capacitor in the abdomen that dumps the energy into pulling the wings down?

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    John
    1. Re:What does the wasp do with it? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Brings to mind the Platypus which uses electricity to locate prey. Maybe hornets use electric potentials as a sensory input.

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      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:What does the wasp do with it? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Informative

      Since xanthopterin converts light directly into electricity, according to the research, what exactly does the wasp do with the electricity produced? Does it directly excite muscles? Is there a tiny capacitor in the abdomen that dumps the energy into pulling the wings down?

      Presumably it would use the electrons generated in a redox reaction which generate ATP which is the basic power supply of the cell.

      Of course, this is all very hypothetical and hand waving at this point. However, if real, it could be a Big Deal - now you have another molecule, aside from the chlorophyll complex that can take photons and use them in cellular reactions. Photosynthesis is quite a bit more efficient that photovoltaic cells - assuming that this really does produce electrons at the end of the reaction and it's similarly efficient, or even just easier to copy / clone / manipulate, we might yet have a decent solar to electricity system.

      One of these days.

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    3. Re:What does the wasp do with it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Photosynthesis is quite a bit more efficient that photovoltaic cells

      Uh no. Photosynthesis efficiency varies from 0.1% to 8%. Solar panels go from 6% to 41%. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis#Efficiency .

  3. journal article by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's unfortunately paywalled, but in case anyone has access to a library with a subscription, the journal article this news article is about is:

    Plotkin et al. (2010). Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis). Naturwissenschaften 97(12): 1067-1076.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:journal article by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's unfortunately paywalled, but in case anyone has access to a library with a subscription, the journal article this news article is about is:

      Plotkin et al. (2010). Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis). Naturwissenschaften 97(12): 1067-1076.

      The full text works for me and I'm not in a library or anywhere else with a journal subscription.

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      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    2. Re:journal article by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Oh, interesting, sorry for the mis-labeling then. It worked for me, but I'm on a campus that subscribes to Springer journals, which are usually paywalled, so I assumed it was paywalled.

      It looks like Naturwissenschaften is part of a "Springer OpenChoice" program where authors can choose to make their paper open-access by paying Springer $3,000, which these authors must've done I guess? I rarely see anyone pay those fees in my field (computer science), but I've heard that in biology grants are more willing to pay such fees.

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      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  4. Not a unique ability by scdeimos · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From TFA:

    The Oriental hornet has a unique ability to harvest solar energy, scientists have discovered.

    Not true. Many marine organisms use Zooanthella to harvest solar energy. This is why a number of corals and anemone are very difficult to keep in marine aquariums - the spectrum and power of artificial light has to be "just right" otherwise the organisms eject their zooantehlla cells and as a result starve to death over the following weeks or months.

    1. Re:Not a unique ability by khallow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not true. Many marine organisms use Zooanthella to harvest solar energy. This is why a number of corals and anemone are very difficult to keep in marine aquariums - the spectrum and power of artificial light has to be "just right" otherwise the organisms eject their zooantehlla cells and as a result starve to death over the following weeks or months.

      It's worth noting here that this is a symbiotic relationship between two species. It appears that the hornets may have a novel mechanism that isn't the result of symbiosis.

  5. How will this influence solar power research? by Required+Snark · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This will clearly have influence on future solar power research. I know that there are research groups trying to use insights from plant photosynthesis for building solar cells, and having another natural system that is not plant (or bacterium) based will inspire a lot of new work.

    One of the things that is most interesting is the nano-structures that are used to make light gathering more efficient. Understanding these structures could improve the efficiency of existing solar power collectors. With current genetic techniques it might even be possible to grow these structures, and perhaps even used grown material in real world applications.

    Another point is that the wasp's collection structures are yellow, not green like plant chlorophyll. The green color results from chlorophyll not using green light, but absorbing more blue end light. If the wasps look yellow, that might mean that they are efficient in a different part of the visible light spectrum.

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    Why is Snark Required?
    1. Re:How will this influence solar power research? by c0lo · · Score: 4, Informative
      Ideas, yes (e.g. use of patterned capture surfaces, possible multiple reflections to increase the efficiency of a cell? Maybe not quite new).

      New materials? The full text version of the article (posted by someone above), mentions a measured the conversion efficiency of a xanthopterin-sensitized TiO2 solar cell to 0.335% - clearly some more work needs to be done (e.g. other substate to senzitize?).

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  6. Re:Oh no.... by NoSleepDemon · · Score: 4, Funny

    What we know for sure is that we did this to the sky, it was believed at the time that the hornets used solar power as their main energy source...

  7. Good news, everyone! Energy crisis solved! by lennier · · Score: 4, Funny

    Soon every suburban house will have its own massive angry hornet array and all our problems will be over.

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    You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC