Bumblebee Superhero Saves Sister from Spider’s Grasp!!!

11 December 2014

            You’re a bumblebee.  Flying along and minding your own business.  As you look for the next flower, suddenly, you’re stopped. You hit something you didn’t see. But, when you try to free yourself, you find you’re caught.  You’re attached to a fine sticky thread.  You can’t break the thread.  You can’t tear yourself away.

            Suddenly, the owner of the thread appears.  Dark black with eight legs, this spider looks hungry.  You, a rather meaty bumblebee, would be a week of food the arachnid. 

            You try desperately to escape, but you can’t get loose.  You try to sting the approaching spider, but the arachnid is nimble on its eight feet and avoids your stinger.  After all, the spider isn’t stuck in a web.  You are. 

            The spider keeps coming.  It can’t sting, but it can bite, and that bite is fatal.  You're sure you’ll never see your nest and sisters again.  This looks like your “final roundup.”  The spider closes-in . . . and, then, . .  “Pow!” . . . “Slam!” . . . “Bang!”. 

            “Holy last-minute rescue, Bat Woman!”

            But was it really Kathy Kane . . .  or . . .  was it Barbara Gordon?

            No, it was your sister bumblebee come to your rescue.  She takes care of that spider in short order.  In seconds, the arachnid is on its back being stung, and you are saved.

  Bumblebee Rescues Sister Bee and Makes Short Work of Spider

            Apparently, there is a genuine sense of sisterhood among bumblebees (most bees are female).  Few would doubt this among honeybees.  The honeybee is the most social of bees. But bumblebees are different.  All bees are social.  But bumblebees come closest to being loner bees.

           

            Instead of building the traditional honeybee hive and living there for years, bumblebees build nests and abandon them, in favor of new nest, every year.  Bumblebee colonies are really quite small.  And, bumblebees don’t hunt for food in groups.  They forage, alone, on wild flowers and grasses in wide open spaces.

            But, when push comes to shove, your sister bumblebee will come through for you – even if you're in the clutches of a large black spider.  When the rescuing bumblebee was caught on video, viewers were surprised.  No one knew that bumblebees could be so brave and loyal.  I guess this loner bee kept its abilities to itself.  You know.  Like Kathy Kane.  

            There’s that name, again.

            Who’s Kathy Kane?

            An ex-circus acrobat turned idle heiress.  But unknown to the world, in her spare time, Kathy was Bat Woman!  In the days just after the end of World War II, being a female superhero wasn’t easy.  The cultural stereotypes were domestic and dependent.  

            Even when Kathy pulled Batman’s fat out of the fire, everyone thought he’d actually done it himself, but given her the credit.  Kathy couldn’t even carry her Bat-gadgets in a utility belt, like her male counterpart. Instead, she had to conceal them as stereotypical contents of the contemporary woman’s purse: lipstick, compact, charm bracelet, and hair net.

            Maybe our rescuing superhero bumblebee has had the same problem. Concealing her dramatic rescues and adventures was necessary because the world wasn’t ready for a bumblebee superhero.  But maybe all that will change.  You know, like it did for Barbara Gordon.

            Who’s Barbara Gordon?

            Batgirl.

            After DC Comics retired Bat Woman, Kathy Kane, it would be almost 15 years before they introduced Batgirl, a female superhero, who was more . . . "in your face."  No idle heiress, Barbara had a PhD and carried her weapons right on her utility belt just like her male counterpart.   

            Like Batgirl, our superhero bumblebee may have no special powers.  But, instead, she may have special training, enabling her to take-out spiders with greatest of ease.  But then, again, this could be a one-time event.  

            Suppose our bumblebee actually does have super powers.  But, maybe, she just got here from . . . “somewhere” else.  You know.  Like Luma Lynai.

            Who is Luma Lynai?

            Superwoman.

            DC Comics' Superwoman, Luma Lynai, came, not from the planet Krypton, but from her own home planet, Staryl.  And this was a problem.  Although she arrived on Earth and stayed long enough to save the planet, the climate wasn’t to her taste. 

            When Superman left the red sun of Krypton, the yellow sun of Earth gave him super strength.  But Luma came from Staryl – a planet with the orange sun.  The yellow sun of Earth made her sick.  

            More tragic, still, was the intense romance that developed between Superwoman and Superman.  Luma wanted Superman to come with her to another planet where they could live happily ever after.  But there were career issues that couldn’t be resolved.

            If most of us decided to go to another planet, we could probably find at least one adequate candidate to take over our job in our absence.  But Superman’s job, defending the Earth against destruction, had a unique job description -- one for which Superman had unique qualifications.  Sadly, he couldn’t leave.

            So, maybe the bumblebee on the video is a “visiting” superhero bee from somewhere else.  But maybe she is braver, stronger and more loyal than your average bumblebee. Then, again, maybe "Super-Bumbles" had super powers and lost them.  But, then, she regained many of her lost special abilities through intense training.  You know.  Like Princess Diana of Themyscira.

            Who’s Princess Diana of Themyscira?

            Well, she used to be a princess with superpowers, but lost her title and powers to become DC Comics' Diane Prince -- operating her own boutique and living in the mortal world.  Blessed by every imaginable Greek god and goddess, she had a bright, royal, and superpower-ed future.  But, then, things got complicated.

            She entered the mortal world with her superpowers intact to become Wonder Woman.  She was helping a mortal -- an intelligence officer named Steve Trevor in his fight for justice, when he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit and imprisoned.  She committed herself to freeing him from prison by proving his innocence.  She knew it would be a long job.

            But wouldn’t you know it.  

            Just when she was getting started, her fellow Amazons decided they would all shift to another dimension.  Even if Diana stayed in this world, her superpowers wouldn’t. 

            But she couldn’t let Steve down.  So, figuratively speaking, she took her lemons and made lemonade.  She found the foremost marshal arts trainer in the world, the blind expert, I Ching.   Under his instruction, she undertook a life of continuous training until she became so good at marshal arts that she might as well have got her superpowers back

            So, maybe our superhero bumblebee doesn’t really have special abilities but, instead, has trained extensively at the nest of a bumblebee teacher who is an expert at defeating spiders.

            No one is really sure if the video shows typical bumblebee behavior.  But if it does, bumblebees are not just social, but far more loyal and brave than anyone expected. Taking on the spider was an act of courage.  Spiders really are particularly dangerous to bumblebees.  

            Being loner bees, we don’t get to see very much of bumblebees interacting with each other.  They do, inside the bumblebee nests.  But these bees don’t leave the nest in swarms.  Rather, they venture out, alone, across the fields of wild grass and scrub brush searching for nectar and honey. 

            These bees are hard workers.  Maybe they don’t have super powers, but they have a special skill.  It’s in the buzz.  With the loudest vibrating buzz of any bee, the bumblebee can buzz even when it’s not flying.  And that strong vibration can free thick pollens from certain flowers in a way that a weaker vibration can't.

            So, bumblebees can pollinate some crops that are a bit of a challenge for other bees – such as tomatoes, cranberries, almonds, apples, zucchinis, avocados, and plums. This bee’s unique style of pollination accounts for about 3 billion dollars in produce each year.

            We already knew these bees were tough, hard workers.  But we didn’t know that, secretly, they fight for justice and rescue the oppressed in their spare time.

Mark Grossmann of Hazelwood, Missouri & Belleville, Illinois

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