The BEEginnings of the Bee

KingArthur10 writes "The Register-Guard is reporting about the discovery of the oldest known relative of the insect providing sugary goodness to the world. From the Article: 'It's as old as the dinosaurs for sure, and just as extinct. As for size, well, the tiny fossilized bee recently uncovered by an Oregon State University scientist is decidedly unlike a dinosaur, but that hasn't kept it from becoming the buzz of the entomology world. That's because this little bee dates to 100 million years ago, making it the earliest known member of the insect line that later became today's familiar honeybee and the first to show signs that it pollinated flowers. It is helping cement the theory that bees long ago developed a taste for nectar and branched off from meat-eating wasps to pursue a life among the petals.'"

Comments

Moo

[Chacham]

The famed Buzzasaurus.

And watch out, that thing can STING!

Suggested tag

[Kagura]

"groan"...

beee

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh I get it. The article is about the bee and you enphasized "BEE" in the title. Thats some great work you guys! Very FUNNY!

Re:beee

[Anonymous Coward]

At least it told us what all the buzz was about.

Oblig. Ralph Wiggum

[no reason to be here]

"It says, 'Let's BEE friends'...and there's a picture of a bee!"

I choo-choo-choose to post this logged in, thus risking my karma.

Now here's a picture of a train.

                  (
          '( '
        "' //}
      ( ''"
      _||__ ____ ____ ____
    (o)___)}___}}___}}___}
    'U'0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

The divergence isn't as far as it seems.

[xC0000005]

Wasps still consume sweet liquids (primarily produced by the brood), wasps still consume (some) pollen. Bees still consume pollen as well but it is fed primarily to the larva, bees primarily live on nectar (not honey). Bee larva consume pollen but I'm curious how they would fare if they were fed masticated insects. The primary difference is in the behavioral wiring. Wasps retain the predator code of conduct, bees not so much.

Re:The divergence isn't as far as it seems.

[tf23]

I'm curious how they would fare if they were fed masticated insects

So you think if they were fed masticated insects their behavior would change?

Re:The divergence isn't as far as it seems.

[xC0000005]

No, I believe instinct is largely hard wired (by definition, sort of, but not entirely - bees that have moving objects in front of their hives are less likely to zip out and confront you if you walk by, so some of that behavior can be desensitized). What I am curious about is whether or not the bee larva (normally fed pollen/nectar by the nurse bees after the first three days) could still subsist on the same material wasps feed the wasp larva. Probably not. It would be interesting though. My point was that bees and wasps, while highly different, still share a large number of traits (beyond the eyes, legs, wings, stings level).

Re:The divergence isn't as far as it seems.

[jd]

It would be much more interesting to know what would happen if you modified what was provided to the bee/wasp larvae on hatching. Presumably, there would be some change, as diet certainly alters how the brain develops in other animals. However, with such tiny brains and with much of it hardwired, it is unclear what's left to change. However, it can't be all hardwired, as bee dances can be "learned", so some dynamic structures must exist. How dynamic, though?

It also makes me wonder about african bees. These are much more wasp-like in their passion for mindless violence, and are far inferior to regular honey bees when it comes to processing pollen, so must presumably be midway on the evolutionary scale.

Then, one must also consider that there are MANY species and sub-species that fall into the category of honey bee. Since the genetic code is relatively short, it should be moderately easy to understand how they interrelate. I would assume it would also be possible to genetically engineer honey bees that have far greater efficiency. (The "killer bees" are the results of a catastrophic experiment to mix african bees and American honey bees, together with allowing them to escape into the wild. All-round, excellent proof that gross stupidity can be bred into researchers. What I'm thinking of is having a totally sealed environment, similar to biosphere 2, and a program that's based more on science than air warfare grants.)

News for nerds. Stuff that matters.

[JDSalinger]

Really trying to validate the Slashdot slogan aren't we?

Voice of the Hive

[loimprevisto]

Time for me to plug a writer I stumbled across recently-

There's a beekeeper who posts on kuro5hin from time to time, his page http://www.voiceofthehive.com/ is great for learning about bees. The guy's a great writer, my favorate story is 'Jose's Swarm', but they're all pretty good.

Re:Voice of the Hive

[despisethesun]

Apparently he posts on Slashdot, too. Here's his profile.

Other suggested tags

[jd]

Buzzwords, buggy, stickysituation, beeosaurus, waspiewasbee

I disagree. Especially regarding the africanized

[xC0000005]

So, let's look at the variations that we know of that are food controlled:
Workers, fed royal jelly for the first three days or so will be the baseline. After three days they are fed pollen/nectar mixture (sometimes called bee bread). This results in a generic worker with undeveloped ovaries. This worker will not take a mating flight and thus will only lay drones in the absence of a true queen.

Queens, on the other hand, are fed continuously for the ten days that it takes them to develop. Raised in a long, vertical cell (including emergency queens) they develop a longer abdomen and a slightly larger thorax. More importantly they develop extremely quickly. Hatching a full week earlier than their worker sisters the queens perform two behaviors that unique - they take mating flights, and they pip (before mating). Once a queen begins laying the desire consumes her - she'll starve, unable to remember how to feed herself. Laying workers, on the other hand continue to feed themselves.

The behavior seems to be present in both, only the laying instincts do not develop clearly in the workers - they'll lay anywhere, and many times. The difference is primarily in quantity - the nurse bees feed queenlings constantly. It seems that this is the trigger for the additional behavior. Bee dances are at least partially coded (if it is in fact the dance and not a vibration or something else that communicates, given that the hive is dark and the dance often occurs far up the comb). Bees do learn though - they orient to a hive and will return to that location (and get lost if the hive is moved).

African bees are not wasp like - the core problem is that they react to the alarm phermone in greater quantities. The venom is identical. It's just that with africanized you are stung six or seven times to start with, and they keep coming. I've seen no indication that africanized forage inefficiently, in fact in SA they are worked as better producers. They do swarm in ways that are not condusive to living in cold weather, and even abandon brood, something I've never seen honeybees do. The major species of honey bee (melifera) is pretty much it. There are variations in "types" of honeybee (italian, carniolan, russian, etc) but these vary in build up, flying temperature and temperment, not general behavioral mechanics.

Africans breed at different times. They are smaller and their drones are faster. Their genese are dominant. First generation africanized bees exhibit all the good qualities (superior work force) and few of the poor ones. It's when they raise their own new queen that all hell breaks loose. Also when the colony is small they may behave normally, at critical mass it becomes unpleasant.