Some bees have developed a taste for carrion. The vulture bees have unique gut microbes that help them digest meat.
A team of entomologists set up chicken baits in a Costa Rican forest to learn more about the bees. They collected a bunch of vulture bees and analyzed their guts and genetics.
The only bees in the world that have evolved to use food sources not produced by plants is a pretty remarkable change in diet.
While ordinary bees have pockets on their back legs to store pollen as they move from flower to flower, the vulture bees have turned the stores into little chicken baskets.
The team wanted to know what was happening inside the bees. The bees have five kinds of microbes that help them break down what they eat. When a species swaps out pollen for raw chicken, what happens?
To figure it out, they collected other bee species that only occasionally eat meat, and some that are strictly vegetarian, to compare thebacteria that populate the insects' guts. The guts of carrion-eaters were built to break down meat.
McFrederick said that the vulture bee's microbiome is enriched in acid-lovingbacteria, which are novelbacteria that their relatives don't have. These are similar to the ones found in actual vultures, as well as the ones found in hyenas and other carrion-feeders, presumably to help protect them from pathogens that show up on carrion.
The team thinks the bees started eating meat because of competition. Let's hope the animals don't develop a hankering for humans, because that would be a bad thing.
The Genetics Behind Bees.
