Unique status of Carpenter Bee calls for public awareness
With Carpenter Bees now being identified as “killer bees”, they assume a unique status among other killer bees and wasps of the world, points out the study team.
Underscoring the importance of raising public awareness about the potential dangers posed by them and the need to avoid encounters with them, Prof. Kularatne urges that as rural workers are at particular risk, they should be advised to take precautions when they notice Carpenter Bees. These bees could be inhabiting deadwood or nests in grasses, particularly in the early hours Lanka, one of which is the sub-family Xylocopinae, an assemblage of very diverse pollen bees. In this sub-family is the tribe Xylocopini, represented by the single genus Xylocopa. Under the Xylocopini and genus Xylocopa are usually large to very large robust bees easily confused with temperate bumble bees.
· Several sub-genera of the genus Xylocopa occur the world over, while the subgenus Nyctomelitta represented by two species is confined to the Eastern hemisphere. Of the two species, X. tranquebarica, is known to have a paleotropical distribution and occurs from Sri Lanka to India, Sumatra and Borneo and from Java to Thailand and Laos. This species is nocturnal.
Pointing out that the spouse of the patient had denied any history of allergies or past Hymenoptera stings in connection with her husband, the team states that the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) who performed the postmortem examination had noted the stinging site, a punctum with fresh bleeding on the right malar area, that the heart and all coronary arteries were normal, the upper airway was normal, but the lungs were slightly congested and had secretions in the bronchial tree and the rest of the organs were normal.
With the dead insect being brought to the entomologist at the Peradeniya University’s Department of Zoology for identification, it had been curated, identified, catalogued and deposited in the reference collection. At the request of the entomologist, the JMO had visited the coconut estate, the site of the stinging a few days after the incident, and located the dead tree trunk. When workers cut open part of the trunk, five more live insects had been found inside the burrows. of the morning.
Recommending further research into the venom chemistry of these bees to better understand their toxic effects, the team urges that they should be regarded as potentially hazardous stinging insects which attack under extreme provocation.
Allergy and anaphylaxis after Large Carpenter Bee stings, meanwhile, should be anticipated, with intramuscular epinephrine administration considered the lifesaving first- line treatment.
“The insects were not aggressive and were collected into a container and brought to the Department of Zoology for identification. The dead ‘attacker’ and those brought later were identified as X. tranquebarica and were sexed and measured,” says Prof. Kularatne, adding that the body length of the bees ranged from 25 to 27mm. The attacker’s condition was poor. It was a female with the stinging apparatus partly broken, most likely during removal from the skin of the victim.
The study states: “We report a sudden fatal case after a sting by an insect previously not identified as being of medical significance. Such incidents, although common among the Apis bees (especially Apis dorsata, the giant Asian honey bee or bambara), have not been reported previously for Carpenter Bees of the genus Xylocopa.
“While the autopsy finding of normal coronary arteries and heart excludes an acute coronary event, evidence of congestion of the lungs and secretions in the bronchi support the possibility of an acute anaphylactic reaction as the immediate cause of death. As this was the first known case of fatal envenoming by this species of insect, the venom profile has yet to be determined. The stings of Apis bees and hornets in Sri Lanka are known to cause anaphylaxis, acute coronary events and even profound pulmonary congestion, leading to death, but there have been no reports of instantaneous deaths.
“The pattern of allergy and anaphylaxis in humans has wide variations and it is quite possible that the victim in this report might have had severe hypersensitivity to some components of the venom of X. tranquebarica. Stinging insects of the Hymenoptera order are well reputed for allergy and anaphylaxis.”