When you think of bees, what comes to mind? Cute yellow wiggly creatures with a sweet tooth! They dance around flowers, buzzing and collecting pollen and nectar. But can this little insect get hardcore? Maybe not so much, or perhaps there’s more to it than meets the eye! The Oxford learners’ dictionary describes a vulture’s diet as ‘flesh of animals that are already dead’. It also mentions ‘bees’ as ‘a black and yellow flying insect that can sting’. Now if you combine them both, you literally get- The Vulture Bees!
According to Figueroa et al. (2021), Bees are wasps that switched to a vegetarian lifestyle, and the vast majority of bees feed on pollen and nectar. Some stingless bee species, however, also collect carrion, and a few have fully reverted to a necrophagous lifestyle, relying on carrion for protein and forgoing flower visitation altogether. Smithsonian magazine (2021) also notes that the Vulture bee stomachs have a unique blend of the Lactobacillus bacteria, which produce acid. To combat diseases that develop on carrion, these species of bacteria may generate a more acidic environment in their intestines. Hyenas and vultures are two examples of meat-eating animals that have microorganisms in their stomachs that produce acid.
Entomologist David Roubik made an exciting finding about a specific kind of bee’s carnivorous behavior in 1982 while studying bees at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. These remarkable bees, sometimes known as vulture bees, stand out from other types of bees because of their particular traits. The majority of bees have saddle-like leg arrangements for carrying pollen, whereas vulture bees have much smaller leg baskets for bringing meat back to their hives.
With the use of a specialized set of teeth, the vulture bees slice and split meat into bite-sized pieces, which they then gather for food. These meat pieces are then placed in tiny pods and kept within the hive for a two-week period before being given to the larvae. Roubik noted that vulture bees, unlike vegetarian bees, lack a supplemental source of protein and have less leg hairs to efficiently catch pollen. It’s interesting to note that during Roubik’s examination, no pollen was discovered in the honey kept in the hives of the carrion bees. Instead, as explained in a 1982 New York Times article, the vulture bees take part in a distinctive procedure. Before bringing the meat to the nest, they only partially digest it. There, it is deposited for the consumption of the other bees.
The Trigona genus of bees, which includes the vulture bees, is found in Central and Southern America from Panama to Guyana. There are roughly 80 species in the Trigona genus, all of which are social bees that breed in tiny colonies and produce little amounts of honey. They and Meliponini bees are sometimes referred to as “stingless bees” because they protect their colony by biting intruders rather than stinging like other bees do. Using wax and plant resins, they create adorable small nests in hollow branches and tree trunks. The hexagonal honey pots are stacked on the upper side of the disks in a succession of nests that resemble upside-down wasp nests.
Vulture bees are important in the environment for a variety of reasons. First, they assist other scavengers like flies, beetles, and ants in the natural disintegration of dead animals. In addition to preventing the spread of illnesses and unpleasant odors, this breakdown process aids in the recycling of nutrients and organic material. Second, remarkable instances of bee evolution and adaptation may be observed in vulture bees. Vulture bees have switched to a diet that includes meat, in contrast to the majority of bees, who primarily consume plants. This change in nutrition demonstrates the variety and adaptability of bee species. Last but not least, vulture bees have distinct stomach microbes that are ideal for breaking down meat and creating acid. These microbes could have uses in biotechnology or medicine, for example. These customized microbiomes may have positive qualities that researchers might investigate and use for a variety of objectives.