Bees Coevolution

Bees have always been an important organism in the ecosystem because of its pollenating trait. Another interesting fact about bees is that in addition to pollination some of them collect oils from flowers. The oil is used to feed to their larvae, nest construction and nest protection (Martins and Melo 2015). The main question is if there is coevolution occurring between oil-producing flowers and oil-collecting bees.

First and foremost, coevolution is when two or more species affect the evolution of the other species. In class we learn that to test coevolution it involves observations, experiments, and phylogenetic analysis. The evolutionary trait involved is the morphology of the bees and structure of the flowers allowing the bees access to collect oil. For the flower it depends on its oil sacs shape and size and how a bee collects its oils by its legs (Martins and Alves-dos-Santos 2013). Smaller tuber flowers requires bees to hold them in place whereas a long tube flower requires a bee with longer legs (Martins and Alves-dos-Santos 2013).

Two

In one study it looked at the loss of the oil glands by the oil-producing flowers. Phylogenetic analysis shows that there was a loss of the oil glands due to the switch of bird pollination or non-oil collecting bees (Renner and Hanno 2010). Also, the oil glands were lost in new environments that did not have oil-collecting bees. This study does not show coevolution between the bees and flowers (Renner and Hanno 2010). In another mutualism study that focuses on ecological functions and biogeography, it explicitly states that there is a coevolution (Mello et al. 2013). The evidence is that the family of bees, Centridini caused the diversification of the Malpighiaceae flowers (Mello et al. 2013). This evidence has no phylogenetic data, but it may show specialization with the Centridini bees and Malpighiaceae flowers leading to