The oldest bee in history discovered

The bee was found in a block of fossil amber that is 100 million years old and dates back to the Middle Cretaceous. The incredible find was recovered from the heart of a mine located in the Hukawng Valley, in the Kachin state of Burma (or Myanmar). Inside the block, in addition to the pollen attached to the hair and legs, numerous parasites were found that still pose a serious threat to the bees. Scientists speculate that it may have been parasites that caused the bee to end up in the resin of a tree, which has engulfed it and kept it intact to this day. This is therefore the oldest evidence of the association between these two groups of invertebrates. Don't wait to find fossil bees, help them now! Use the voucher: GREENEWS to get an immediate 10% discount on all adoption plans!

Studying the fossil was Professor George Poinar Jr. of Oregon State University, a professor in the US university's Department of Integrative Biology. Analysis of the specimen determined that the bee - scientifically named Discoscapa apicula - belongs to a previously unknown species, genus and even family. It possesses several anatomical features found in modern bees, such as hair, a rounded pronotum (insect thorax) and excrescences on its hind legs. There are, however, also aspects in common with apoid wasps, such as some typical veins on the wings and downward-facing antennae. The prehistoric bee, however, possesses an exclusive trait that has never before been observed, either among bees or wasps, living or prehistoric. This is the base of the antennae, which has a double segment.

The presence of pollen and parasites indicates that the bee had visited several flowers before being incorporated into amber. Plants with flowers are thought to have appeared around 130 million years ago and have since co-evolved closely with insects, whose valuable pollination activity enables them to reproduce. It is therefore clear that, since prehistoric times, bees have been of fundamental importance to the biodiversity on which our very lives depend. Yet today we are still doing too little to protect them. Nectar-feeding bees are derived from carnivorous apoid wasps. Scientists do not know how and when this transition from carnivorous to palinivorous (pollen-feeding) insects took place, but the fossil found in Burma indicates that already in the Middle Cretaceous, a period still dominated by dinosaurs, this relationship between bees and flowering plants was already in place and well established.

Parasitic scarabbees also attack bees during pollination, so 100 million years ago, the relationship between these species had also evolved. Details on the prehistoric bee have been published in the scientific journal BioOne Complete. Choose to support a beehive and its beekeeper, with the code GREENEWS you get a 10% discount on every plan! Find out how you can adopt a beehive monitored by 3Bee technology. This way you can help beekeepers protect their bees.