Oddity Ark #94 (274) Vulture Bee

We’re all abuzz as we head towards the century mark, just don’t eat the honey, its made from corpses this week. And if you want to request an issue on an amazing animal, fabulous fungus, perplexing plant or awesome paleofauna, don’t hesitate to leave a request in the comments.

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Oddity Ark #94 (#274)

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Apidae

Genus: Trigona

Species:hypogea

Related Species: Vulture bee is a subgenus of three species within the genus Trigona (1).

Range: Vulture bees live in grassland and forest edge habitats within the tropical and subtropical regions of South America.

IUCN Status: The vulture bee is not currently classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Rotten Taste

Vulture bees are small red coloured bees that reach a body length of up to 2cm, and a reduced amount of hairs on the thorax. Like other bees within the genus Trigona, the volute bee is stingless, but does possess an enlarged pair of mandibles used for food gathering and defence against predator. Vulture bees navigate primarily through the sense of smell to search for carrion, with a presence for corpses that are more advanced in decomposition. The body is entered through the eyes, using their mandibles to shear off chunks of carrion that is stored in the bee’s crop. While multiple bee species will feed on carrion, the three species of vulture bee are obligated necrophages (2), and as such do not contribute to the pollination of plants.

Due to the shift from herbivory to carnivory, the vulture bee has lost enzymes and symbiotic bacteria used to break down pollen and has cultivated relationships with those that can break down carrion (3). Due to the carrion based diet, the vulture bee has an acidic gut chemistry, to speed up the breakdown of food. Upon returning to the nest, typically located in a tree hollow, the vulture bee regurgitates a honey like jelly from the hypopharyngeal glands on the mandible, to feed larvae and to accumulate as an emergency food supply when carrion is readily available.

A single breeding female, the queen, is the only breeding individual in the hive and uses sperm cells accumulated during her nuptial flight to produce both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. The worm like larvae consume stored honey, or are fed directly by workers, regurgitating partially digested carrion, as they return from a foraging trip. After pupating, the larvae emerge as adult bees, with those coming from unfertilized eggs staying with the hive acting as sterile workers, with those from fertilized eggs leave the hive as part of their nuptial flight as fertile drones and queens, that will go on to start new colonies.

Five Bemusing Bees

Perdita minima is the smallest bee in the world reaching a maximum length of 2mm, and weight of 0.333mg.

On the other end of the size scale Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto) get up to 6cm in length. Despite its large size no recorded sightings were made between its discovery in 1858 and 1981, with the next sighting made in 2018 (4).

The capricious masked bee (Amphylaeus morosus), makes hives of two individuals, a fertile queen and a sterile worker that acts as a guard for the developing eggs. This species is considered a model species regarding the evolution of socialness in insects (5).

A solitary species, the alkali bee (Nomia melanderi) are able to open alfalfa (Medicago sativa) by snaping open the keel of the flowers. Due to its resilience and preference for pollen over nectar, this species is preferred as a pollinator by farmers over honeybees (Apis species) (6).

The bee Anthophora pueblo was only discovered in 2016, and bores nests into desert sandstone, the only species known to do so.

References

1. www.arkive.com

2. Roubik, D. W. (1982). "Obligate necrophagy in a social bee". Science. 217 (4564): 1059–1060

3. Figueroa, Laura L.; Maccaro, Jessica J.; Krichilsky, Erin; Yanega, Douglas; McFrederick, Quinn S. (2021). "Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome". mBio. 12 (6): e02317–21

4. Main, Douglas (2019). "World's largest bee, once presumed extinct, filmed alive in the wild". National Geographic

5. Hearn Lucas R., Davies Olivia K. and Schwarz Michael P. (2022) Extreme reproductive skew at the dawn of sociality is consistent with inclusive fitness theory but problematic for routes to eusociality Proc. R. Soc. B. 289

6. Cane, James H. (2008). "A native ground-nesting bee (Nomia melanderi) sustainably managed to pollinate alfalfa across an intensively agricultural landscape". Apidologie. 39 (3): 315–323.

Picture Credits

1. vulture-bees.jpg (1000×666) (learnbees.com)

2. DSC_0861-1024x683.jpg (1024×683) (tufts.edu)

3. CNs0ILKUkAAnD2D.jpg (1024×1024) (twimg.com)

4. Wallaces-Giant-Bee.png (1080×1080) (beeswiki.com)

5. Anthophora-pueblo.jpg (660×330) (scinews.ro)

As we head towards Easter be on your guard, next week’s issue wants your easter eggs, you have been warned. And if you want to see more amazing animals and plants, please check out the Oddity Arkive or past issues. And if you want even more animals, please check out dearly departed Impurest Cheese’s Guide to Animals which can be found here, or on the blog of the eusocial mammal @ficopedia.

If you still have a yearning for learning, please check out the master list of Mr Monster’s Martial Arts Journey

@cbishop, @mrmonster, @lemillion, @spareheadone, @chino_xl, @goldpool, @whathappened, @yejj, @arranvid, @goodkarma, @jacdec, @steve40l, @cambatta, @arctika, @eisenfauste and @officialtopg

What is that? What is that? What is it? No not the bees!. Not the bees! There not just in my eyes, they are eating them!

@sundown89: "the eusocial mammal" lol

I like the giant bee. :)

@ficopedia: Let's hope we don't have to wait thirty years to next see it. It was only rediscovered because someone was selling two of these bees on ebay.

Nice. Bees are fascinating little creatures, very smart too. I like seeing those vids with the bees that go to war with the wasps and another how ants were using themselves as bridges to get to a bees nest which is crazy.

@arctika: Smarter then they appear certainly. They can also be trained to locate land mines far more efficiently than dogs and rats. I know the videos you are talking about; I believe its a wasp nest that the ants are raiding. The other clip is about the bees being targeted by the giant Asian hornets, a species that was almost mentioned in this issue, but will likely get its own issue somewhere down the line.

Landmines? Really, that's interesting. I know dogs and rats are amazing at it due to their smell. Bees though? Thing is how would you follow a few bees unless you had some sort of tracker on them? Unfortunately from those vids I saw the bees didn't seem like the best fighters as the hornet war and the ant attack they both lost. I mean I get why ants just have the numbers and wasps are far more aggressive. Yeah I saw that about the asian hornets and how huge those things are kind of crazy.

@arctika: So with the bees, the hive was conditioned to associate TNT, the typical detonator for mines, with food that was more high in sugar than what they find in nectar. As such the majority of the workers cluster around the mine and then wait until they are rewarded when the handler comes along with the food. Considering we've trained bumble bees to play football (soccer for you Americans) for food, finding landmines was far less complicated.

As for bees vs hornets, those bees were European honey bees vs Asian giant hornets. European honey bees are used to fighting one on one, but because the hornets are so much larger, they are simply lining up to be slaughtered. Japanese honey bees on the other hand dogpile the hornets and start vibrating, raising the internal temperature of the ball of bees to cook the would be nest raiders since the bees can just about tolerate higher temperatures then the hornets.

And because I know you'll ask about bee football here is pre-emptive video for you.

Haha that's cool about the Soccor/Futbol thing and that's an interesting strategy regarding how they take on the hornets with the vibrating thing, hmmm. Bees seem quite smart, that's improvising for sure. Also how did you know I would ask about the sports feat? lol That's funny though and cool at the same time. Thanks! You just have Bee-lieve I guess haha. Now if they can train them to play baseball that would really be impressive lol

It's more amazing that, those same bees have started training other bees to play as well. As the sports thing, it simply was a good prediction regarding how the entity know as @arctika: behaves when I tell them animal facts. Bees playing baseball, do you really want using tools? You know beyond what they already do in the wild.

Yeah, it's always fun to learn animal facts from you. To be honest I'd be really, really, really surprised if I saw bees playing baseball simply because the rules are a bit more complex than soccer/futbol as far as those two sports are concerned but that's another story entirely. Still, that would be cool to see.

@arctika: Thanks, I do love teaching. As far as I know, no animal has the capacity to play bat and ball sports, or at least in the case of non-human primates the motivation. That said I know toucans throw berries to each other in mid-air for fun so at least some can bowl, and cats, dogs and ferrets will happily chase a ball (when they are in the mood). Hmm perhaps we're onto something here

And then there is the species who gets closest to baseball, and that's the sadist known as the bottlenose dolphin. They use a pufferfish as a ball, and throw it to each other. They play for fun...and to get high

David Tennant may be able to explain better than I can...plus its David Tennant (always a win), also spy cams disguised as creatures!

@sundown89: Oh wow I was going to ask why the puffer fish 🐡 then you said to get high lol 😆 That took me off guard, awe thats mean I guess they know the puffer fish is the closest thing to a a valley they can find. Kind of cruel yet creative at the same time..

I have seen a few vids with dogs holding the bat and hitting the ball thrown to them and of course some dogs love to catch it. They like most animals im sure wouldn't be able to comprehend the rules but they can definitely catch and hit the ball at least.

@arctika: Cruel yet creative, honestly that describes dolphins all too well.

Arctika I barely comprehend the rules and I have the luxury of having apposable thumbs, in essence your right most animals would likely be blanking on you although I can see the non human great apes maybe being interested if just because of intellectual curiosity although for the love of the incredibly Handsome Sun Wukong let’s not arm the chimpanzees, they don’t need any more weapons added to their toolkit.

@sundown89: Dogs holding a bat with it's mouth btw lol but if it could hold one with their little paws that would something haha. Yeah since they taught that one gorilla(I forget her name) she was super smart, I definitely feel they could teach an ape or a gorilla the basic concept of swinging the bat and perhaps catching it. Their anatomy is similar to a human(as far as arms, legs standing up I mean) I can see that being possible for sure. Apposable thumbs? Oh that's interesting. My left hand/left thumb is double jointed but that's it. My right hand/thumb is normal though and not. Like my left thumb goes in and out at the second joint closer to my palm. Not sure what the cause is for that. I've seen some people out there their whole body is like that so it looks like they're literally folding their limbs or more so like a rubber band if that makes sense just contorting themselves.

Yeah I'm sure you've seen Planet of the Apes movies right? haha

@arctika: We all have apposable thumbs, it just means I can pick things up with that digit and that it bends. It's one of the ways primates have gotten so good at making tools. If you are lucky you will also have semi-apposable toes as well. The similarities in the morphology are just one of the reasons we know we are great apes and primates, our ancestors just won the race to world dominance and higher tool use, pretty much through being in the right place at the right time (and a healthy dose of luck)

Hypermobility (double jointedness) is a common genetic mutation, likely a genetically neutral one (due to the additional flexibility but also the increased likelihood of developing joint pain) that is passed down on the alleles from parent to child, and I suspect if you go back far enough in your personal genetic tree you will find other people with the condition.

I saw the old films, I've meaning to see the new ones but I am typically quite busy.

Oh I thought you meant something else nevermind lol. Yeah though I'm sure certain medical conditions would limit that like arthritis unfortunately, my mom has this she has trouble picking up things normally let alone with just her thumb. I pick up stuff with my toes daily like a tissue or something if I miss the trash, and I'm too lazy to bend down I can pick it up with my toes easily. I see, yeah hopefully I'll be spared the joint pain haha. I am sure you're right however I can't really find out as I am adopted and was given up as such since birth. The only thing I know is regarding any crucial health genetic conditions is that the the lawyers said there wasn't anything they were aware of such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer etc but something like hypermobility I don't know. I do have anxiety disorder unfortunately, which I found out can be genetic or not depending on the case and family tree.

Yeah the newer ones are a bit different yet share some similarities with the older ones but very good.