Bee mungo - Neocene Project

Bee mungo (Floromungo apiphilus). This species differs from sugar mungo in dim brown colouring of the top part of body with longitudinal black strips on sides. Spots on its throat are yellowish and rather small.
The diet of bee mungo includes mostly honey which it steals in bee nests, and also larvae of these insects which represent the main source of protein of animal origin in its diet. It is dangerous to get such food: bees can kill small animal, having stung it enough of times. But bee mungo uses the special adaptation to ravage bee nests: it has strongly advanced musky glands, and the smell of their secretion frightens insects off. Getting into bee nest, animal lets out some drops of musky liquid. The extending smell forces bees to leave nest and to get off in dense clusters on branch at some distance while the animal quietly licks honey and eats larvae in their nest. In other features the biology of this species is similar to biology of sugar mungo.