In #aboutthebees ancient bees history Scott

A History of Bees


Bees, both wild and farmed, are a wonderful and essential component of modern ecosystems and economies. But how did this useful little insect come to be? Today there are over 16,000 species of bees throughout the world, all of which originated from an ancestor in the distant past which has proliferated and spread throughout the world. What was this ancestor? Where did they spread from? And how have they shaped the world we know today?


Bees and Flowers: Best Friends from the Beginning

Like many pollinating insects, bees have their origins deeply connected to the evolution of flowering plants in the mid Cretaceous. Over 100 million years ago, flowering plants began to spread across the cretaceous world, toppling non-flowering plants as the most prevalent terrestrial plant species and opening up new opportunities for whatever organisms could utilize these new plants. One such organism was a carnivorous wasp-like insect that fed on pollen-eating insects that were emerging at the time. This new species began to adapt to use this new food source, directly eating pollen itself. However, these new pollen eaters were still solitary like most modern bee species, It wasn't until tens of millions of years later that the first eusocial bees (bees that live together in social systems with labour division) appeared.

As flowering plants established themselves as the dominant terrestrial plants and their connection and interdependence with pollinators such as bees grew, the ancestor of modern bees began specializing in pollination as a lifestyle. Their diets developed to become dependent on the pollen and nectar of these plants and the pollination of specific plants. This coevolution (evolution resulting from complimentary pressures two closely-involved species place on each other) helped drive the diversification of both flowering plants and bees. Genetic evidence suggests that it was this coevolution with flowering plants that spurred the explosion of diversity of bees, which have remained diverse and prominent to this day.


Unlikely Cousins



Coming from a shared ancestral species, bees split off from wasps through their coevolution with flowering plants; their lifestyle shifting away from predation and parasitism to mutualism in the form of pollination. But, bees themselves wouldn't stay unified for long. The early wasp-like ancestor of bees, soon after differentiating from wasps, had ants differentiate from them. This new family of insects found a different way of life in its environment, doing away with only feeding on pollen and nectar, becoming entirely eusocial, and growing wings in only special circumstances. Bees and ants, despite their differences, are more closely related to each other than either of them are to wasps.


Where Did Honey Bees Come From?

There are seven species of honey bee found throughout the world, but only one, Apis mellifera, the European honey bee, is farmed and cultivated around the world. Its native range reaches from northwestern Africa, through Europe, and into western Asia. Within this area, dozens of subspecies exist. However, six more honey bee species are found throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia and thousands of non-honey bees around the world. This begs the question of where the common ancestor of these honey bees came from?


The current range of honey bees. (Obtained from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee)

Originally, it was thought that the ancestor of honey bees originated in Africa. However, as of 2014, new genetic evidence suggests that honey bees originated in Asia, where they then expanded and diversified to the rest of the world. The European honey bee we're all familiar with split from its cousin Apis ceranae, the Asian honey bee, only 6 to 9 million years ago in southeast Asia, where  it then diverged into the 32 known subspecies today. Since being farmed, humans have spread these bees throughout the world.


The Marks of Coevolution


(Obtained from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophrys_apifera)

The hundred twenty million year-long coevolution between flowering plants and bees can be seen to this day. Ophrys apifera, the bee orchid, is a flower found throughout the Mediterranean and surrounding area, reaching as north as Ireland. This orchid has evolved to look similar to a bee, and in its southern ranges solitary bees of the Eucera genus attempt to mate with the artificial bee, pollinating the flower in the process. However, in the northern ranges of the flower, self-pollination is almost exclusively used. Few bees attempt to mate with it. This has led some to suspect that in the past, another species of bee was the target of the orchids mimicry and since its disappearance the flower has been forced to adapt either to self-pollinate or to attract different bees.

The history of the honey bee is rich, with an explosion of variety following the spread of flowering plants and a close relationship with those plants to this day. Bees and flowers have driven each other to an enormous variety of thousands of organisms and through their pollination along with that of other pollinating species, enable the great variety of plants, fruits, and nuts we enjoy today. All thanks to insects in the age of dinosaurs forming a relationship with new plants that has stood the test of time.



If that isn't commitment, then I don't know what is.


Sources

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982217301458
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221300256X
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213010567
https://americanbeejournal.com/the-elusive-genesis-of-apis-mellifera/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-beguiling-history-of-bees-excerpt/
http://www.killowen.com/genetics14.html
https://zoom-ology.com/2018/08/23/reproductive-mimicry-the-bee-orchid/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-beguiling-history-of-bees-excerpt/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee


- Scott B.

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In #aboutthebees infection Megan nosema

Bee Aware - How Do Sick Bees Affect Us?

Dead Bee With Sting
Hello everyone! Our team has been working hard to help the sick bees, but how exactly does a bee get sick? What happens to bees when they get sick? How do sick bees affect humans? In this blog post I will discuss the fungal parasites that affect bees and what the overall effects are of bees getting sick.

Bees GIF

There are two microsporidian parasites that can affect bees: Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. N. ceranae originally was a pest of the Asian honey bee but recently started to infect the European honey bee, and is more harmful than N. apis. That's why N. ceranae is the focus of our project in helping #SaveTheBees.

What happens when a bee gets infected with N. ceranae? The bee experiences changes in their overall appearance and physiology. They will have trouble digesting their food, they may become a forager at a young age and they have a shortened lifespan overall. If the queen becomes infected, her lifespan is shortened and she may lose the ability to lay eggs. This reduces the colonies' performance because the population declines, the bees are unable to perform their duties to the best of their abilities, which threatens the overall health of the colony. Entire colonies that are affected by this parasite may ultimately die.

Now, let's get into the details of how this parasite infects the bees. N. ceranae is a fungal infection, and fungal infections use spores to spread. The bees ingest these fungal spores during their day-to-day duties, such as eating or drinking contaminated sources, or they can be picked up from other infected bees in the hive by cleaning contaminated surfaces. It only takes one spore to cause an infection, and once infected, the spore count can get as high as 30-50 million spores in the bee midgut. The spores germinate in the midgut of the bee, and this is because in this area they are able to steal nutrients from the bee for themselves. The spores continue to grow and replicate inside the midgut, and can spread to the digestive tract which then leave the bee as feces. The fecal matter then contaminates the water/food/other surfaces, which can then spread to other bees.

Fun Fact: Spores take only 30 minutes to germinate, once ingested.

Once the spore gets into the bee, the contents are injected into an epithelial cell, where they then multiply until the cell bursts, releasing all of the spores back into the midgut. A diagram of how this occurs is located below.



Bee Drugs GIF - Bee Drugs High GIFs

So how do you know when the bees get sick? 

Unfortunately, there is no good method of detecting when the bees are sick, and that is where we come in. This year, our iGEM team aims to create a detection system to detect when bees are sick. However, until we finish our work, the only way to really tell when bees are sick is to look for some of the following symptoms: declining colony populations, lower production of honey, reduced number of offspring, and poor survival over the winter. These symptoms don't necessarily mean that the hive is infected; the only way to know for sure if the bees are infected is to look for the spores under a microscope. This way is very inefficient because it takes a lot of time, money, and resources.

Why should we care about sick bees?

Bees are actually incredibly important; they perform many functions in our ecosystems that are essential to our survival. The biggest impact that bees have on humans is that they are pollinators. This is a critical component in helping plants grow and produce the food that we need to eat to survive. Bees produce honey, which is a sweet snack for humans and it also serves as a food source to many other animals. Bees are also an integral part of the food chain and are preyed on by birds, raccoons, and other insects. Bees are super important to the function of ecosystems because not only do they build their own hives, they are also responsible for pollinating plants that are the homes to other species of insects and animals. Bees are also responsible for a lot of the diversity in ecosystems, and there are many species of bees that are adapted to certain types of plants in order to increase the success of pollination. As you can see, bees are extremely important to us, and they play a huge role in the ecosystem. The world would lose a lot of biodiversity, and food production would be greatly affected if the world were to lose bees. Hopefully after reading this paragraph, you can see what a catastrophe the world would go through if all the bees were to die from being sick.

Bee GIF - Bee GIFs

So what can you do to help save the bees? The first step is being aware and educated about the issues surrounding bees. By reading this article, you are already taking the first step! You can also plant flowers for bees to pollinate, support local beekeepers by buying fresh and local honey, and don't use pesticides on your garden.

Check out this really cool website for more information!

Sources

https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/nosema/#ad-image-0
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924483/
http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/bees/nosema-disease-of-honey-bees
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/why-do-we-need-bees
http://www.pthomeandgarden.com/5-ways-bees-are-important-to-the-environment/

Thanks for reading!

- Megan M.

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In #aboutthebees communication hives Megan

Inside The Beehive

HOW TO TELL IF YOU HAVE A STRONG HIVE

Introduction

On the outside, a bees' nest looks like a simple place where bees are flying in and out and going about their daily business. However, the bees' nest is really a complicated interconnected network where each bee has a job to do in order to contribute to the collective of the hive. Have you ever wondered how bees work together in order to produce honey? Each bee belongs to one of three groups within the hive, with each group having a specific job to do. Let's take a look at some of the work done by each of the three castes: the workers, the drones, and the queen

Homer Simpson DGAF About Bees GIF - Bees Homer HomerSimpson GIFs

Workers

Workers are the largest of the three castes, consisting of 85% of the hive. These are the bees that are responsible for leaving the hive to collect pollen and nectar and are also responsible for various tasks around the hive, including feeding the queen, drones and larva, and making beeswax. How are these jobs divided up between the workers, you may ask? They are divided by age! Worker bees, at some point in their short 506 week lives, will likely end up participating in all tasks in the hive.

Worker bees start off as an egg in a part of a honeycomb. Then, the first task they are assigned is to clean out the part of the honeycomb where they grew. They then are given the task of nursing bees, which means they have to help feed newly hatched larva and keep them warm. Then, as the bee ages, they will begin to do some housekeeping around the hive. There is so much for these bees to do, including storing nectar and pollen, building honeycomb, guarding the entrance, and they are even responsible for warming the hive if it gets too cold. Then, the worker will become a forager, after around 20 days old which means they are the ones that will leave the nest to collect nectar, pollen, and any other resources the hive may need. Workers will be foragers until they die, about one month after they are born.

Fun fact: All worker bees are females. However, they are infertile and are unable to produce offspring of their own due to a pheromone released by the queen.

Another fun fact: Worker bees live longer in the winter since they spend more time inside the hive, keeping it warm instead of going out and gathering supplies. 

Bees Pollen Pollination GIF - BeesPollen Pollination AdventureTime GIFs

Drones

Drones are the male bees, and their purpose in life is to mate with the queen. They have no foraging tools nor do they have stingers, but they are equipped with large eyes to help them find the queen to mate with. Therefore, they depend on the workers to feed them and keep them alive. There aren't too many drones in a hive, since a queen only needs to mate once. Any eggs that the queen lays that are unfertilized will become drones. When a drone mates with the queen, they die. 

Fun fact: A drone's eyes are almost twice the size of a worker bee's.

Bee GIF - Bee GIFs

Queen

There is only one queen bee in a hive. The queen lays the eggs of every bee born in the hive and she influences the bees in her hive using pheromones, which are chemicals that are released into the hive. How does the hive determine when an egg is to become a queen bee? The process starts when the hive begins to become full or when the ability of the queen to lay eggs diminishes. Workers will build special cells that hang off a honeycomb, where the existing queen will lay some eggs, and the larvae in these cells are fed royal jelly. It is important that the queen mates with multiple drones before she lays eggs in order to assure genetic diversity in the hive. Once the new queen is established, she goes cell-to-cell and stings all the other queen bee cells, and a battle ensues between them. The winner becomes the new queen. Then the old queen, some workers and drones leave the hive and find a site for a new one.

Fun fact: The queen is the largest bee in the colony.

Bee Busy GIF - Bee Busy Flying GIFs

Communication

So how do workers, drones, and the queen all communicate to ensure all of the jobs are done and that everything in the hive is running smoothly? There are a couple of methods of communication, including...

Pheromones: The queen gives off a pheromone that allows her to communicate with the bees in the hive. The pheromones are what keep the worker bees from being able to produce viable offspring, and are also what attract the drones to mate with her, and also signal to the hive that she is doing well. Pheromones do much more than this; they can also alert the hive if there is a threat. If one bee stings something, the rest of the worker bees are alerted to the threat with pheromones. There are two types of pheromones, the primer pheromones that are released by the queen to ensure everything that stays as it should, and the released pheromones which are released by the workers in response to events.

Movement: The workers may perform a series of movements to teach other workers the location of food sources away from the hive. The movement series is known as the "waggle dance" and the distance and speed indicate the distance of the food source, and the way the bee aligns their bodies is indicative of the direction of the food source.

For more information, check out these links:


Works Cited


Thanks for reading!


- Megan M.

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In #aboutthebees danger Jesus killer

Africanized Bees

Image result for the bee movie
Hello there, my name is Jesus and after forgiving everyone's sins and saving the entire human race, I decided to join iGEM to save the bees this time. Just kidding I couldn't even save my goldfish when I was 6... but I'll try my best to save the bees I promise. Anyways, so it was my turn to write a blog and I asked myself, "What is a good bee-related topic to write about?" It didn't take me too long to find the answer; I wanted to write the Barry Benson bee-ography. However, I realized it takes books to describe the life of such an almighty character, so I'll leave that to the professional writers that actually know what they're doing.

Instead, I will explain briefly what you need to know about a particular bee subspecies: the deadly and aggressive Africanized bee.

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Barry Benson PhD, exchanging highly cultural interests with followers.

The Africanized bee is one of the 29 recognized subspecies of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). It is a hybrid emerging from the cross-breeding of multiple European honey bees (A. mellifera ligustica and A. mellifera iberiensis) and the East African lowland honey bee. Thus, it is called the Africanized bee (A. mellifera scutellata), or more lovingly, the "killer" bee.

This subspecies appeared for the first time in 1956 as African bees were imported to Brazil in an attempt to cross-breed them and maximize the honey production. Unfortunately, a number of sneaky African queen bees escaped from specialized facilities a year later, just like a teenager escaping the house at midnight on a quest for a dopamine rush facilitated by alcohol. The bees didn't get the punishment of their lives though; instead, they settled all over the continent and causing the death of approximately 1,000 people in the process.


How dangerous are Killer Bees?

Even though Africanized bees can be a little intimidating at first glance, they are not as apocalyptic as Hollywood presents them. As a matter of fact, the venom released by Africanized bees is the same as the venom released by European bees.

The main difference between the two is, in fact, that Killer Bees would attack much faster and more aggressively; they will attack even if seemingly unprovoked. Even wearing a strong perfume and walking near a hive of Africanized bees would be enough to upset them. They become more defensive than Mexicans when they hear that TacoTime has the best tacos on Earth.



Statistics provide that Africanized bees attack in greater numbers compared to other subspecies. More precisely, it is 10 times more likely to get stung when attacked by these raging bugs. European bees would normally defend their hive by staying in it and attacking the intruder with only a few bees (10-20 bees), whereas Killer Bees would chase the intruder at high speeds for long distances with an army of about 100. The Africanized honey bee takes no chances; it will defend the hive in situations that would normally be ignored by European honey bees.


Recognizing Africanized Bees

Aside from the behavioural dissimilarities pointed out above, differentiating Africanized and European bees based on appearance is no easy task, especially when they're all flying all around you and you're trying not to panic. Even though cautious morphological tests are performed to determine exact physical differences between them, one notices a colour and size change when analyzed side-by-side; Africanized bees are larger and darker compared to other species.


Comparison between Africanized and European bees

A remarkable distinction are the locations where the two types of colonies establish their hives. European bees build their nests in large and broad areas such as tree hollows and house chimneys. On the counterpart, Killer Bees are not as picky selecting their spot, as they can settle in even more confined spaces like holes in the concrete or even hanging off a tree branch. This subspecies also has the capacity of invading a European hive and taking over it. They do this by settling the Africanized colony, including their queen bee, near a European hive. They proceed to exchange resources (e.g. food and pheromones) to ensure adoption of European worker bees, and lastly the European queen bee mysteriously disappears and just like that, the European hive becomes Killer Bee territory.


A Remarkable Attack

To give you an idea of the magnitude of an attack, I'll give you a couple of examples. In October 2014, a news source reported the case of a lawn care worker in Arizona who was killed by a swarm of 800,00 killer bees. The worker was not alone at the time; his colleagues were also stung approximately 100 times but they were lucky enough to survive. This atrocious attack was provoked when the workers turned on their lawn mowers in an attempt to treat a lawn, but such a bothering noise disturbed a big hive sitting in the attic and the rest is history.

A more recent event took place a couple of months ago. A man in southern Mexico carrying firewood encountered an angry swarm of Africanized bees. He was able to escape a first attack leaving his stuff behind and running as fast as he could. However, when coming back for his cargo, the man received a second attack where bees stung him presumably at least 500 times.



Ultimately, Africanized or not, it is best to treat all bees equally. When approached by any kind of bee, it is recommended not to panic in order to avoid any sudden movements that may cause the bee to feel threatened. If approached by a raging swarm, experts suggest you should run against the wind as fast as possible. This makes it more difficult for bees to keep up with you. Jumping into water may not be so effective all the time especially with killer bees, as they persevere when defending a hive and you have to get your head out of the water at some point to breathe.

Now that you are somewhat familiar with the most aggressive bee subspecies, I hope this article did not worsen your irrational bee fear. Thanks for your time, and I hope you never have to deal with a swam of Africanized bees in your life.


References

"Africanized Bees." Smithsonian Institution. Accessed July 03, 2019.

Alexander, Harriet. "Swam of 800,000 Bees Kill Man in Arizona." The Telegraph, October 09, 2014. Accessed July 2, 2019.


Ellis, Jamie, and Amanda Ellis. "Africanized Honey Bee - Apis mellifera scutellata." Africanized Honey Bee - Apis mellifera scutellata  Lepeletier. January 2008. Accessed July 03, 2019.


Ojar, Christina. "Africanized Honey Bee." Introduced Species Summary Project. March 1, 2002. Accessed July 03, 2019.


Vasquez, Herlindo. "Abejas Asesinas Provocan La Muerte a Senecto En Chetumal." Turquesa News, May 1, 2019. Accessed July 02, 2019.



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- Jesus H.

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