Amber-trapped bee reveals ancient pollen-carrying trick and a hitchhiker
Woodrow C, Von Allmen R, Baird E, Vallejo-Marin M.
Pollinators
The leaf-cutter bees nesting in your garden's bee hotel today carry pollen the same dry, compacted way their relatives did 30 million years ago, a foraging trick this fossil just proved is ancient.
Researchers scanned two bees trapped in Baltic amber using a powerful X-ray technique that let them see inside without cracking the amber open. Inside they found a brand-new species of leaf-cutter bee with pollen packed onto its back legs in an unusual dry, compressed style still used by a few bee species today, plus a tiny mite riding along on its body, the oldest known example of a bee carrying a hitchhiking parasite.
Key Findings
New fossil species Protolithurgus acarophorus described from two Baltic amber specimens, only the second known record of the extinct tribe Protolithurgiini
Holotype preserves compacted pollen in the hind-leg scopa, a pollen-carrying strategy rare among living leaf-cutter bees
First documented fossil bee-mite association, suggesting an early, unspecialized kleptoparasitic relationship
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists used high-powered X-ray scanning to peer inside 30-million-year-old amber and found a new species of leaf-cutter bee, complete with pollen still packed on its legs and a tiny hitchhiking mite, offering a rare snapshot of how ancient bees foraged and interacted with other creatures.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Insights into the ecology of early leaf-cutter bees revealed through synchrotron X-ray tomography.
During the Paleogene, bees diversified extensively after expanding from tropical regions into northern forests surrounding the future Baltic Sea, evolving alongside diverse angiosperms. Most fossil...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Rapid disruption of pollination function by the invasive plant Impatiens glan...
That pretty pink-flowered plant spreading along your local riverbank or woodland edge could be quietly starving native wildflowers of the bee visits they nee...
Foraging refers to the search for and acquisition of wild food resources, encompassing the behavioral strategies animals use to locate and consume plants and other organisms. In plant science, understanding foraging behavior is critical because it illuminates plant-animal interactions, including
arrow_forward Explore topic