Tragedy in 2014 leads to discovery of killer sting
A research team’s work following the death of a labourer two years ago in Puttalam has led to the documentation of the first-ever reported case of fatal stinging by the Large Carpenter Bee, earlier considered to be harmless
It is a first, a tragic first though, in Sri Lanka.
When a humble manual labourer set out from his home in a remote area of Puttalam in September 2014, he was intent on making a few hundred rupees to feed his family. What he did not know was that he would fall victim, the first in the country, to a Large Carpenter Bee ( Xylocopa tranquebarica) considered a rare species here, and return home only in a coffin.
The 59-year-old and a fellow labourer had left home around 7.30 in the morning to fix a fence bordering a coconut estate and a forested area in remote Adapana Willuwa, south of Puttalam, a Dry Zone section of the North Western Province. It was a 2km walk to the site, from the closest motorable road and by 8.30 a.m. he was clearing some bushes next to a dead treetrunk.
Disturbed by the hacking of the bushes, several insects had flown out of the dead tree-trunk and as he shouted for help, swarmed around his head, with one stinging him on the right side of his face just below the right eye.
The deadly sequence of events had occurred quickly thereafter – with the bee still being attached to the labourer’s face, his companion had slapped it dead, while the victim complained of severe pain in the face. Having rested for about 10 minutes, he had, however, resumed work, felt faint, complained of difficulty in breathing, sat awhile and collapsed. His wife had then been informed and after her arrival, the labourer had been carried to the road and taken to the Puttalam Hospital around 10 a.m.
He had been pronounced dead on arrival.
A small item in a newspaper on this sudden death after a beesting had caught the eye of Prof. S.A.M. Kularatne of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, far away from Puttalam. He had then picked up the paper trail and followed through with a quick phone call to the Puttalam Hospital, while also getting other researchers on board.
The research team’s meticulous work has led to the documentation of the first-ever reported case of fatal stinging by the Large Carpenter Bee, earlier considered to be harmless.
This is what the team has put under the spotlight in the reputed international journal, ‘Wilderness Environmental Medicine’ in May, this year.
The focus on this ‘killer bee’ has been by Prof. Kularatne; Prof. Jayanthi Edirisinghe & Dr. Inoka Karunaratne of the Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya; Dr. Sathasivam Raveendran of the Puttalam Base Hospital; and Dr. Kosala Weerakoon of the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, University of Rajarata.
Explaining that in the order Hymenoptera, bees ( mee-messo and bambaru) and hornets and wasps (both called debaru) are well-known stinging insects whose envenoming can be fatal, the team states that though their stinging attacks are common in rural and forested areas of the country, ‘fatal stinging’ by the large-bodied Carpenter Bees has been unreported before.
“The autopsy on the labourer who was declared dead on admission to the hospital 90 minutes after the stinging, found normal coronary arteries and heart, but the lungs were slightly congested and contained secretions in the bronchi,” the team states, disclosing that acute anaphylaxis was the most likely cause of death.
Thereafter, the team presents the habitat, morphology, attack pattern and medical importance of Large Carpenter Bees.
· In the class Insecta, members of the order Hymenoptera are best known for their role in pollination, biological control of insect-pests and as stinging insects. The bees, hornets and wasps in this order are distinct and unique in having a modified ovipositor as a stinger that acts in association with a venom gland. Stinging attacks by bees and wasps on humans have become a common occurrence in Sri Lanka.
· Bees of the world are classified into seven families, of which four families -Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae and Apidae – are found in Sri Lanka. There are 148 species of bees in 38 genera under these four families in the country.
· Apidae is represented by several sub-families, genera and sub-genera in Sri