BEES

By:Christian Jay Rayon Nob

BS-Marine BiologyMindanao Sate University-Naawan Campus

History of Bees

Bees are classified in the phylum Arthropoda , class Insecta, order Hymenoptera, superfamily Apoidea.

Bees evolved in the Cretaceous period.

George Poinar a professor of zoology at Oregon State University discovered the oldest bee in a mine in the Hukawng Valley.

Wasp is the ancestor of bees but it doesn't necessarily mean that bees evolved from wasps. It's more likely that bees and wasps both evolved from a mutual, wasp-like ancestor.

Wasp are carnivores Bees are herbivores

Anatomy of bee

Bees body are divided into three parts the head, thorax, and abdomen

Part s of head -two compound

eyes- Simple eyes- Antennae- Mandible

Compound eyes

used for distance vision

Each eye consists 150 ommatidia

Bees recognize blue, yellow, white and black.

but less receptive to reds

Simple eyes

called ocelli found near the front

and top of the head Ocelli register

intensity, wavelength, and duration of light

At dusk the ocelli estimate extent of approaching darkness, causing the bees to return to their hives.

Antennae

responsible for odor and taste.

perceive vibrations and movement of air, sounds, temperature, and humidity 

Mouth

sucking tube eat and drink Paired mandibles, or

jaws A glossa, or tongue A labrum and

two maxillae The labrum and

maxillae are like lips support a proboscis for collecting nectar.

Thorax

two pairs of wings six legs Hairy Wings has two part

the hind wings and fore wings

 Michael Dickinson study how bee fly with a small wings and big body, they found out that the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency

Bees flaps its wing 230 times per second

Abdomin

consists of seven visible segments

first is very narrowed and makes up the petiole (waist) of the bee

sting 

Biodiversity of Bees

Bees are belong to the superfamily Apodiea all species are approximately 20,000 known three types of bees this are the queen bee,

worker bee, and the drones. Bees are divided into two groups this are

the Social bees and solitary bees Social bees are live in colonies usually

consisting of around 50,000 – 60,000 workers.

Solitary bees- they do not live in colonies.

Worker bees has wax gland that they used to build a nest.

When the hive is overcrowded, the worker will raise a queen by feeding a royal jelly from their heads throughout her development.

The bees will know if they need a new queen if they stop receiving enough queen substance, it is a pheromone that the queen produces in her mandible glands.

Bees have mating site where they reproduce but until now scientist do not know where is that site

Only female bees can sting, because the sting or ovipositor are the egg depositor.

The Honey Bee -(Family: Apidae)

Honey bees are classed as social bees, as they live in colonies usually consisting of around 50,000 – 60,000 workers.

There are 10 types of honey bee worldwide, and one hybrid: the Africanized bee. The European Honey Bee ApisMellifera is commonly kept by beekeepers in the West, who then harvest their honey.

Most bumblebee colonies are fairly small, from 50 to 400 workers, but usually around 120 to 200. Pictured left is Bombuslucorum - The White-tailed bumblebee. Most species are ‘social', but there are also 'social parasite' species, known as 'cuckoo bumblebees'. These parasitic bumblebees inhabit the nests of other bumblebee hosts.

Leafcutter and Mason bees (Family: Megachilidae)

These types of bees are solitary bees. With solitary bees, usually, a single female mates, then constructs a nest alone, and provides for the egg cells that will become larvae.

However, some solitary bees in one sense, do live in a simple form of society (or social group) in that a few individual bees may nest close to each other, and in some cases, even share nest guarding and foraging duties!

Mason bees like to make nests in crevices, sometimes in old mortar, where as leaf cutter bees like hollow stems and readymade holes in wood.

Digger Bees and Carpenter Bees (Family: Apidae –originally, they were classified in the family ‘Anthophoridae’)

These are also solitary bees, and are good pollinators. 

Not surprisingly, digger bees usually make their nests in soil. They have hairy bodies, and can be up to 3cm long!

Carpenter bees vary. Some species in the USA, for example, may have a ginger brown, hairy body, or have predominantly black shiny bodies.

Mining Bees (Family: Andrenidae)

Not to be confused with 'Digger Bees', Mining bees belong to a different family of bees altogether - and it's a huge family of bees, consisting of thousands of types of bees across the world. Mining bees are solitary, although females usually build nests quite close to each other.

From the name mining bees excavate tunnels and cells under-ground.

In general, they seem to prefer sandy soil. They will not cause any damage, and indeed, mining bees should be welcomed in the garden, as again, they are not only enchanting little creatures, they are also valuable pollinators of plants and flowers.

How do bees fly with their big body and small wings? The bees are twisting their wings, so

they are vertical when they move up, but horizontal when they move down, then by doing that the bee can create vortex below them which push them up.

Bees can flap their wings approximately 230 times per second that’s the reason why bees can fly.

Terms in the systematic of bees

Hymenoptera-are those who have two pairs of membranous wings, although some may be wingless such as some species of female wasps and the worker caste of ants, The forewings are larger than the hind wings and are held together by small hooks, Females usually have a hardened ovipositor, which may be modified for sawing, piercing or stinging, Most hymenopterans have a constriction between the first 2 segments of the abdomen, which is known as a 'wasp waist', Chewing (mandibulate) mouthparts, although in some species such as bees the lower lip is modified to form a tongue, Compound eyes, usually large

Cretaceous period-from 135 million to 63 years ago; end of the age of reptiles; appearance of modern insect and flowering plants

Compound eye- each eye is made up of thousand of light-sensistive cells which help the bee understand color, light, and directional information from the sun’s UV rays.

Anthenna- the main function of the antenne of a bee is to smell, use for directions, and measure the flight speed

Mandible- The mandibles are the strong jaws of the bee. They help the bee eat pollen for food, cut and shape wax, feed baby larvae and the queen, clean the hive, groom themselves, and fight.

Proboscis- The proboscis or the tongue functions mainly in drinking or lapping of nectar, honey, and water. It also plays a role in food exchange between the bees.

Forewing- A Honey bees forewing is typically larger than its hind wing. Its main function is flight but it also is used as a cooling mechanism.

Hindwing- The hind wing’s main function is also flight and can at times be attached to the forewings by hooks called hamuli so both pairs of wings can beat in sychrony. It is also used to fan away heat and cool the hive.

Legs- The main function of the bee’s legs is for movement, however bees also use their legs to manipulate and carry pollen and propolis (a resin substance from trees). The hair on the legs helps dust off pollen and other substances. Bees also have a specialized structure for cleaning the antennae.

Abdomen - has seven segments and contains female reproductive organs in the queen, male reproductive organs in the drone, and the stinger in both workers and queen.

Sting- The string is has two lancelets supported by hard plates. Strong muscles which are connected to a poison gland surround the sting. The purpose of a sting is for defense, however once a honey bee stings, it also loses its life. The worker leaves the sting in the body of the victim and when pulling away ruptures the abdomen and thus dies.

Evolutionary Trees and Root of Bees

Bees evolutionary trees is a rooted tree. Bees evolve from the ancestors of the wasp.

Evaluation of Tree Protecting biological diversity

with limited resources may require placing conservation priorities on different taxa.

setting priorities such that the subset of taxa that is protected has maximum underlying feature diversity. Such feature diversity of taxon subsets is difficult to estimate directly, but can be predicted by the cladistic/phylogenetic relationships among the taxa.

In this study, a simple measure of phylogenetic diversity is defined based on cladistic information. The measure of phylogenetic diversity, PD, is contrasted with a measure of taxic diversity recently developed by Vane-Wright et al.

The potential application of PD at levels below that of the species is then illustrated using a mtDNA phylogeny for populations of crested newts Trituruscristatus. Calculation of PD for different population subsets shows that protection of populations at either of two extremes of the geographic range of the group can significantly increase the phylogenetic diversity that is protected.

Characters

All bees start their lives as eggs. These grow into larvae and then pupate into fully formed bees. The queen, drones and worker bees take different amounts of time to complete the stages. This is useful to know when you come to inspect your hive and need to know how long ago the queen has laid a particular type of egg.

Queen Drone Worker

Hatching of

egg3 3 3

Cell sealed 8 10 8-9

Spinning of

cocoon9 12 10

Moult of pupa

to adult15 22 20

Emerges from

cell16 24 21

Queen Drone Worker

Summer 3-4 years 22 days 36 days

Winter 3-4 years 59 days 6 months

The average length of life is also different depending on the type of bee and when they are born.

Mating is usually the first activity of adult bees once they have emerged from the nest.

After mating, most species of bees begin searching for suitable niches in which to nest. However, there is sometimes an

unexplained delay during which time the bee remains at the entrance of the natal nest for a day or more.

Molecular Systematics

Historical Context The small carpenter bees (tribe Ceratinini,

family Apidae) are recorded from all continents except Antarctica.

The Ceratinini have a near-global distribution which contrasts strongly with their sister tribe, the Allodapini which has a largely southern Old World distribution.

The Ceratinini therefore provides an excellent group to understand the factors that help determine the biogeography and radiation of the bees. This is the first molecular study of ceratinine

bees covering representatives from both northern and southern hemisphere Old and New World regions.

Basic Techniques DNA extraction, amplification and

sequencing methods Tissue samples of approximately 5 mg

were taken from up to three legs from each specimen. DNA extractions followed GentraPuregene Cell Kit (Qiagen) standard protocols. PCR amplification was achieved in 20 ll reactions containing 2 ll 10 mMdNTPs (2.5 mM each), 5 ll each primer (5 mM), 1 U HotMasterTaq DNA polymerase, 2.5 ll Hot Master Taq Buffer (MgCl2 included) and 50 ng DNA template

Dating analysis We used a penalized likelihood method, implemented

in rates version 1.70 (Sanderson, 2002) to estimate the ages of key nodes in our phylogeny. We employed three calibration points: (i) the minimum divergence between the Ceratinini and Allodapini was set at 45 Mya because of the fossil Boreallodapini species found in Baltic amber (Engel, 2001). Boreallodapini is the sister tribe to the Allodapini and the Ceratinini is the next-most basal clade in the Xylocopinae. This minimum-age restriction is likely to be highly conservative since the Allodapini + Boreallodapini clade is likely to have diverged from the Ceratinini much earlier than this. (ii) We also set a minimum-age for the node separating Apismellifera from Liotrigona B1 because of the fossil meliponine bee Cretotrigonapriscarecovered from New Jersey amber (Michener and Grimaldi, 1988) and most recently dated at 65 Mya (Engel, 2000)

Impacts on Phylogenetics Our understanding of bee phylogeny

has improved over the past fifteen years as a result of new data, primarily nucleotide sequence data, and new methods, primarily model-based methods of phylogeny reconstruction

Phylogenetic studies based on single or, more commonly, multilocus data sets have helped resolve the placement of bees within the superfamily Apoidea

Phylogenies have provided the comparative framework for understanding the evolution of host-plant associations and pollen specialization, the evolution of social behavior, and the evolution of parasitism.

Bee phylogeny based on molecular data have altered our understanding on bee biology.

CONCLUSION

Bees are different from wasp in the way the live and raise their larva or in the way of living. Theory is wrong about bees cannot fly because of their big abdomen but they can fly. Bees are important to have a balance in ecology. Bees are the one responsible for the pollination 90%. The existence of angiosperm will be ended if bees are absent in the environment.

So let’s make small things like bees and not only bees special because we do not know they have the big role in our environment.

-------------------------------------------------------------

THANK YOU