homeWelcome, sign in or click here to subscribe.login
     


 

 

News


Subscriber content preview

April 17, 2009

Strange But True!

Q. Which have been perhaps the fiercest six-legged soldiers in the history of warfare?

A. In Rudyard Kipling's “Second Jungle Book,” the hero enlists the aid of a colony of bellicose bees to beat back a pack of wild dogs, says Jeffrey Lockwood in “Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War.” The creature Kipling may have had in mind is the giant honeybee of Asia, or “Apis dorsata,” described as “the most ferocious and deadly stinging insect on Earth.” These bees are not only larger but attack in huge numbers (a colony comb can be 10 feet across) and will pursue an intruder 100 yards or more.


 
. . .


To read this story in full login or purchase a subscription.



Previous columns:



Email or user name:
Password:
 
Forgot password? Click here.