![]() ![]() “To put it in human context, it would be like traveling from Chicago to LA based on just the energy that you produced.” “ a million times their body size in terms of distance,” Jha says. The researchers discovered that small bees frequently managed to spread pollen between trees more than a mile apart. “And what this allowed us to do is create kind of a little roadmap of where pollinators had been traveling before they landed on a receptive flower.”Īmong their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that even the tiniest bees play a big role in pollination - and promoting genetic diversity in forests. “We looked at the DNA in a seed to figure out where pollen was coming from,” Jha explains. Jha and her colleagues recently conducted a “paternity analysis” of the trees in a roughly 2.5-square-mile plot of Panamanian forest. “And so they have this high level - we believe - high level of fidelity to these woody materials in which they were born.” 5. “They often go back to their old nest sites and kind of refurbish the homes where they were born, so where their mothers actually laid them,” Jha says. Carpenter bees remember their roots - er, trees. “So things like sodium and other micronutrients can be limiting for these bees, and so they need to get them somewhere - and tears or sweat are often good places.” 4. “What we believe is going on is trying to get a limited resource,” she explains. ![]() (Check out butterflies and bees drinking caiman tears in National Geographic.) The sweat bee “got its nickname because humans noticed it drinking their own perspiration and also the fluids of other animals,” Jha says. The “sweat bee” gets needed nutrients from us and other animals. “And so bees provide this care for their offspring in the form of this bread.” 3. Not only does the bee bread provide food for just-hatched solitary bees, but Jha adds that it also includes helpful fungus and bacteria. “And they create this little ball of resources and then they'll lay their eggs on top of this ball of food.” ![]() “So, bee bread is this mixture of honey and pollen and some other secretions that solitary bees create for their offspring, for their babies,” Jha says. “So despite kind of the public impression that all bees are like honeybees and bumblebees, we have a lot of these bees that are that are living on their own.” 2. “About 90 percent of all bees are actually solitary,” she explains. Most bees nest underground, Jha says, or live in rotting logs or the stems of trees. And according to Shalene Jha, an associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, these bees aren’t just important pollinators - they also have some curious quirks that you may not have heard about. Under normal circumstances, you don’t have to worry too much about them, though.When you think of bees, your mind probably heads straight to the big, buzzing bumblebee, or the social honeybee flitting from flower to flower.īut there are thousands of other bees out there, too - some no larger than a grain of rice. Since sweat bees are common, sweat bee stings are a likely occurrence. If you aren’t gentle, however, and deliberately harm, push, squeeze or press on a sweat bee, she will retaliate. It won’t get hurt, and will probably take off, leaving you alone. Usually, gently brushing a sweat bee off of your skin will do the trick. So what happens when they sting you? Should you be concerned? How Bad Do Sweat Bee Stings Hurt? Regardless of their intentions though, sometimes humans and sweat bees just don’t get along. They’re just foraging, as honeybees do with flowers. When they approach, they’re not trying to frighten or harm you. Sweat bees eat nectar and pollen just like any other bee, but they are drawn to our sweat because it’s an easy (and abundant) source of the minerals they need. All they’re actually after is the salt in our perspiration. So how come they’re so forward? The answer is right in their name. Having one land on you greatly increases the risk of having one sting you. This quirk of theirs is what makes them potentially dangerous. Why Do Sweat Bees Sit on Us?Īs mentioned, sweat bees have a habit of sitting on us-an uncommon trait in bees. They’re not even Halictidae, or remotely related to Hymenoptera-the order that bees are a part of. Just to clarify, hoverflies are not sweat bees. ![]()
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