• filcuk@lemmy.zip
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      20 days ago

      As vulture bee honey is derived from animal flesh, it is not suitable for vegetarians.

      Phew that’s good to know! Nearly gourged myself on some corpse honey

  • quantumcrop@lemmy.today
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    21 days ago

    Using their extra-toothed mandible, they will slice and chew the flesh off, coating the meat in their acid-rich saliva before consumption. The bee will transport the chewed carrion back to the colony where it’s regurgitated into wax pots, different from the honey pots.

    Here, the meat will be mixed with honey and left to mature over a period of 14 days. During this curing time, it will become a paste-like substance that is rich in free amino acids and sugars. This paste is fed to their young, who need it to grow.

    Source

    So basically a potted meat but with sugar instead of fat. Apparently they also keep normal honey that’s separate from the meat honey. Bees are so fucking cool.

  • TyrionBean@lemmy.ml
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    20 days ago

    So, basically: Rotting flesh-eating zombie bees produce honey which few outside of a certain cultural milieu will ever find appetizing or acceptable? 😃

  • Raven@lemmy.org
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    20 days ago

    I would not want the honey from Resident Evil anywhere near my breakfast.

    • rollerbang@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      While I would agree on the surface, it’s not really depravity. We’ve got to do away with rotting meat somehow. Hence why vultures are so important.

      Still upvoted though.

      • 5715@feddit.org
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        20 days ago

        I just wanted to use that word… The whole sentence is just a word game given that personifying environment into nature is common, but wrong.

    • Geobloke@aussie.zone
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      20 days ago

      Have you ever thought about blue cheese?

      “Let’s try drinking the milk from an animal”

      “Oh, it’s kinda gross and solid ish now. Still tastes good though”

      “Oh wait, it’s gone really mouldy. Let’s slap it on some chicken wings”

      • 5715@feddit.org
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        20 days ago

        Animal cheese connoisseurs be like: Our food culture grew by one diarrhoea at a time.

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      20 days ago

      Like is that at all surprising? Starvation was a leading cause of death through much of history and pre-history, of course folks start to eat and drink dubious things. Ever heard of folks sucking the eyes out of fish to get fresh water? That’s on the milder end of what our instincts will force us to do under the right circumstances.

    • Nikls94@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      People learning about mushrooms: This one tastes like beef, this one killed bob instantly, and that one made me see god for 2 weeks

  • coalie@piefed.zip
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    21 days ago
    "meat honey"

    The vulture bee is sometimes said to produce a so-called “meat honey”, but this is a misnomer resulting from scientific uncertainty, due to historic confusion of multiple species, each with a slightly different method of processing.

    In one detailed study of Trigona hypogea in Brazil, the vulture bees mixed sugary plant products with a proteinaceous paste from regurgitated meat, and let it mature to form a sweet substance that was used as food; however, the two resources were initially kept in separate “pots” in the colony, neither being true honey (i.e., not derived from nectar), but they were then mixed together.

    In a different study of Trigona necrophaga in Panama, the bees gathered nectar and produced honey, and they also produced a glandular secretion, derived from carrion, partially metabolized, used as a protein source, and kept completely separate from the honey. In neither case were the bees mixing meat-based substances with floral-derived substances.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulture_bee

    • Akasazh@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      In one detailed study of Trigona hypogea in Brazil, the vulture bees mixed sugary plant products with a proteinaceous paste from regurgitated meat, and let it mature to form a sweet substance that was used as food; however, the two resources were initially kept in separate “pots” in the colony, neither being true honey (i.e., not derived from nectar), but they were then mixed together.

      So it’s not incorporated in the honey. They have a separate protein stache.

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        Fascinating. It’s worth mentioning that (normal) honey can be used to preserve meat, thanks to its antimicrobial and hydrophilic properties. I guess that’s what’s going on here too: they use a kind of nectar honey to keep the meat component from going off. That said, this kind of food preservation isn’t immune to botulism so do be careful if you try this.

        Now I’m wondering when/how this behavior evolved. Did these guys come first, and honeybees figured out how to eat pollen as a protein source as an evolutionary step, the other way around, or separately at the same time from some parent species?

    • snoons@lemmy.ca
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      21 days ago

      Vulture bees usually enter the carcass through the eyes. They will then root around inside gathering the meat suitable for their needs.