I would not want the honey from Resident Evil anywhere near my breakfast.
meat honey
Submitted 20 hours ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/0800db21-d121-4dbe-9dba-22beb7ae657d.png
Comments
raven@lemmy.org 2 hours ago
otter@lemmy.ca 4 hours ago
This one probably needs a NSFW filter, for “I was eating” reasons 😅
Gonzako@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
NSFE
Gsus4@mander.xyz 10 hours ago
filcuk@lemmy.zip 6 hours 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
Sphks@jlai.lu 4 hours ago
Honey produced by vulture bees is a pleasant tasting and sweet smelling honey-like liquid.
It’s strange that it doesn’t taste like rotten flesh.
Bloomcole@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Bugonia?
quantumcrop@lemmy.today 13 hours 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.
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.
coalie@piefed.zip 20 hours ago
Spoiler
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.
snoons@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
Vulture bees usually enter the carcass through the eyes. They will then root around inside gathering the meat suitable for their needs.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 18 hours ago
There needs to be metal band called Vulture Bees, this is too metal.
prettybunnys@piefed.social 19 hours ago
On bed of mottled rocks Amid flowers cold as ice Pray the weak, the old, the poor And when the tiny one from Heaven comes Crawls inside the chosen skull And when the tiny one it summons the others To crawl inside the chosen skull
Akasazh@lemmy.world 18 hours 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.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
A protein stache would be part of a meat beard.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 18 hours 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?
RaoulDuke85@piefed.social 20 hours ago
My mudhoney cover band.
BruisedMoose@piefed.social 17 hours ago
Every Good Boy Deserves Meat Honey
Mandarbmax@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
I just came into the comments to post that. Thank you!
5715@feddit.org 15 hours ago
Nature does depravity.
Humans: “Is it edible?”Nikls94@lemmy.world 4 hours 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
rollerbang@lemmy.world 14 hours 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 12 hours 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.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 10 hours 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.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 15 hours ago
That hive looks like I’m not high enough level to fight whatever is in there.
manmachine@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I think I saw that in Dead Space
bluesheep@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
Was about to say, this is some resident evil type shit
umbrella@lemmy.ml 9 hours ago
was just about to say this looks like doom demon hives
negativenull@piefed.world 18 hours ago
IRL Zerg home base
e_chao@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
a smoky, salty, and savory taste rather than being sweet beezzit.com/…/meat-honey-the-strange-secret-of-vu…
python@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
They need to make a Dominion 2 just for this kinda shit
IntrovertTurtle@lemmy.zip 19 hours ago
No thanks, I’m good.
87Six@lemmy.zip 19 hours ago
No good, I’m thanks, dad
What
Doomsider@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
They are also stingless, how interesting.
sober_monk@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Well, I know what my players are facing next time they venture into the Underdark…
ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
Are they finding the person who decided to test the edibility of the corpse nest?
sober_monk@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Now that you mention it, hell yes they are!
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Rotted bee vomit. No thx
InTheNameOfScheddi@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Regurgitated rotten flesh bee vomit* :)
Tja@programming.dev 1 hour ago
Correct. Bee vomit doesn’t rot.
Moxie_empathizer@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
So busy with “could” didn’t worry with “should”
BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 13 hours ago
That means someone tried it out
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 17 hours ago
Alright. I would.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
Actually, that’s a really good point to which I really want to know the answer. We have to assume that, since it’s effectively fermented meat, the prion would survive, but maybe they’re really efficient at turning all of the protein into unbound amino acids?
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
That’s pretty metal
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 19 hours ago
Ok, as I understood it, there is “edible honey” that is really plant-based, and “carrion meat-based protein storage” that kind of works like pollen storage in honeybees nest. TBH, I find pollen more nutritional and tasty than honey. And I know that honey bees are opportunistic carnivores too. These things kind of come together in a story better left untold.
pennomi@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
I’ve seen people turn bright red and itchy after eating pollen, presumably it’s a likely allergen?
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 19 hours ago
It totally is! I’m allergic to several types of pollen, also I live in the middle of the forest and am a beekeeper. My stomach hurts when I eat that stuff. Nothing of this stops me; I also love Spring. I feel quite sick now, too (well, cold weather came back and it’s a bit easier than 2 days ago). Good that I have mild allergy, I’d be dead by now if I had it hard. When birch flowers unusually hard, I sometimes have a symptom that feels like how people describe asthma.
Maybe some day I’ll get desensibilized enough, after eating this stuff regularly. Maybe I’ll die trying.
My neighbor doctor - also a beekeeper - says that many people who perceive honey as slightly spicy actually get allergic reaction from traces of pollen in it. He also thinks my strategy of eating pollen to overcome allergy should eventually work; I think I just like the taste too much to stop.
The trick with pollen I’ve discovered is that as soon as it is extracted from the honeycomb, it starts quickly degrading; whenever it’s sold, it’s bleak tasteless flavorless powder, not even close to explosion of flavor that happens when you chew on a fresh blob right from the honeycomb (usually with the honeycomb, who cares, it’s edible too. Almost everything inside the nest is edible, apart form the frames and other human-made nonsense). Apparently you can get the stuff only from an actual beekeeper (or by raiding wild bees nest probably, I think it’s not a good idea though), and I only figured it out when I started keeping bees!
Windex007@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
What do bees need pollen for? I thought bees just got bukkaked as an co-evolutionary repayment for the nectar they’re jacking?
alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 3 hours ago
It’s their protein source; honey is pretty much carbs-only, good in winter, when they just keep warm, but raising kids on that is not good. Besides, bees are wasps, and wasps are carnivores, they need protein and mostly eat pollen protein in summer if they can. Honeybees eat flesh too, including cannibalism, just less often than plant material - apparently, with organized labor veganism turned out to be more effective, at least for them. No morals behind it, pure business.
LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 18 hours ago
Okay this might be more disgusting than the rotten Sardinian maggot cheese, even though the maggots can jump
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 13 hours ago
Alien Bees is what I’m getting from this
expatriado@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
when i hear couples calling each other honey, this is what i will picture in my head
Akasazh@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Dark, yet uplifting
spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
I can’t explain why, but this got a lol
DaedalousIlios@pawb.social 18 hours ago
Babe, wake up! New Vita Carnis monster just dropped!
Zerush@lemmy.ml 15 hours ago
Always it’s bee shit
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Lovecraftian horror.
senorblackbean@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Soylent Green Honey ™
OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Nope