Chapter One
THE STORY OF BEES
FROM DINOSAURS TO DAHLIAS: THE EVOLUTION OF THE BEE
You might be surprised to know that the first bee buzzed alongside a lumbering Stegosaurus. It collected pollen from small, dull flowers without any petals and it most closely resembled a wasp. That’s where the story of bees begins, 130 million years ago, in the last epoch of the dinosaurs. Before flowers painted the landscape, before humans walked the Earth.
THE FIRST FLOWERS
It’s difficult to imagine a world without flowering plants. They dominate our habitat today, making up 80 per cent of all the plants on Earth. Yet the first flowers emerged relatively recently in geologic time, about 130 million years ago, around the arrival of the first bees.
When early flowers appeared among the ferns and pine trees of the Cretaceous period, they looked nothing like our flowers today. There were no showy dahlias standing colourful and bright or stalks of shapely foxgloves made heavy with nectar. The first flowers were modest, without ornament, and hardly distinguishable from the plants around them. Until this point, most plants reproduced by scattering their pollen to the wind, but nature was about to find a more efficient method of pollination: insects.
Hungry beetles were among the first to seek out the nutrient-rich pollen that flowers provided. The pollen clung to their wiry hairs and came with them as they travelled from flower to flower. This method of transferring pollen was more direct and less wasteful than wind pollination. Its early success led to the rapid expansion of flowering plants and the insects that pollinated them.
EXPLOSIVE CHANGE
Flowers began to spring up everywhere and quickly developed insect-attracting features to distinguish them from their neighbours. Water lilies and magnolias were the first to unfold generous, white petals. The eye-catching petals made it easier for pollinators to find them and also served as convenient landing pads. Other flowers wooed insects by developing alluring scents, bright colours, and finally the sweet reward of nectar.
As flowers became more complex and diverse, so did the pollinators that visited them. They evolved not just alongside one another, but in response to each other. Flowers strived to be more inviting to insects and insects became better and better pollinators. Some pollinators grew long, tubular tongues for extracting nectar, others developed a keen sense of smell or a more acute perception of colour. And for every elongated tongue, there was a corresponding deep-throated flower. Pollinators evolved to suit specific flowers and became specialists.
THE BEE ARRIVES
Somewhere in this explosion of life, the bee buzzed into existence. This primordial bee was actually a predatory wasp, who would change everything by switching to a vegetarian diet. Imagine a wasp stalking its prey from among the newly minted pollinators of the time. The wasp likely ate a pollen-dusted beetle for lunch and began to develop a taste for the pollen rather than the beetle. Eventually, the wasp gave up its predatory ways and pollen became its only source of protein.
The first bees further distinguished themselves from wasps by developing various pollen-collecting methods. They sprouted feathery hairs on their legs and abdomens that could be packed with pollen and flown back to the nest where it would be used to feed their offspring. When nectar became available, bees found the sugary substance to be an excellent source of energy. They grew long tongues and sipped on it while gathering pollen.
BEE FACT
ALTHOUGH IT’S COMMONLY BELIEVED THAT BEES EVOLVED FROM POLLINATING WASPS, THE DETAILS OF THE THEORY ARE STILL SHROUDED IN MYSTERY BECAUSE OF GAPS IN THE BEE FOSSIL RECORD. THE MOST RECENT CLUE WAS UNCOVERED IN 2006, WHEN THE OLDEST KNOWN BEE, MELITTOSPHEX BURMENSIS, WAS FOUND ENCASED IN AMBER. THIS 100-MILLION-YEAR-OLD FOSSIL PROVIDES NEW EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE THEORY BECAUSE IT HAS TRAITS OF BOTH BEES AND WASPS. IT’S CONSIDERED PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT ALSO HAS BRANCHED HAIRS, WHICH TODAY’S BEES USE FOR COLLECTING POLLEN.
Over time, some bees became social creatures and gave up their solitary lifestyle in favour of colony life. They developed complex societies where many bees shared a single nest and the duties of maintaining it. They evolved sp...
