If you think bees can be more “toothed” and even meat-eating, the bee species Costa Rica is home to is just what you might think: the vulture bee. Far from the furry vegetarians we know and love, this bee species is carnivorous and has the courage to use its sharp teeth.
An article published in the journal MBio took a deep dive into the guts of these “monsters.” The research revealed that these creatures are like real vultures by nature as well as by name and share gut microbiome components with scavenger birds. The adaptation shows how these bees developed such a preference and tolerance for rotting carcasses.
In the study, humorously titled “Why did the bee eat the chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome” 159 bees were collected, corresponding to 17 species from nine genera that ate carrion or a piece of both. These specimens were mostly collected from La Selva and Las Cruces field stations in Costa Rica, using carrion and chicken as bait.
“They came in little chicken baskets,” UCR entomologist Quinn McFrederick said in a statement. Vulture bees stored meat in their pockets, similar to how pollen-eating bees store food they find as a result of their search.
Vulture bees are “the only bees in the world to have evolved to use food sources that are not produced by plants,” and are therefore uniquely positioned, says UC Riverside entomologist Doug Yanega, who said they’ve made “a pretty remarkable change in dietary habits.”
So their gut microbiome was expected to be remarkable when compared to those of honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees, all of which have the same five basic microbes in their bellies. These essential microbes stood out as the fashion for bees during nearly 80 million years of evolution.
Comparing the gut microbiomes of pollen eaters, meat eaters, and omnivores, the study authors discovered that there were significant differences between different diets.
“The vulture bee microbiome is enriched with acid-loving bacteria, which are new bacteria that are not in their relatives,” McFrederick says. “These bacteria are similar to those found in true vultures as well as hyenas and other scavengers, and likely help protect them from pathogens that arise on carrion.”
And that’s not the only surprising difference. “Although they cannot sting, they are not completely defenseless and many species are quite dangerous. While some defend themselves with bites from harmless species, many species seem to have the ability to bite that cause painful wounds on human skin,” says Yanega.
Interestingly, despite their delicious diet and bad behavior, vulture bees’ honey is edible and reportedly sweet. . .
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