Low Light Foraging Bees

Two Australian bee species, Reepenia bituberculata and Meroglossa gemmata, have adapted their vision for night-time conditions, according to a paper published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research; both species possess enlarged compound and simple eyes which allow more light to be gathered when compared to their daytime kin.

Meroglossa gemmata. Image credit: James Dorey, Flinders University.

Meroglossa gemmata. Image credit: James Dorey, Flinders University.

Bees play a key role in terrestrial ecosystems, responsible for many pollination services in both crops and native ecosystems.

However, despite the typical representation of bees as organisms associated with daylight foraging, the evolutionary transition to foraging in low-light conditions has occurred multiple times, in some cases with significant subsequent diversification within low-light adapted lineages.

The suggested evolutionary drivers behind these transitions include reduced competition for resources and escape from enemies such as parasites and predators, although these hypotheses currently lack direct evidence from quantitative studies.

Low-light adapted bees are substantially understudied components of the bee fauna, particularly in Australia.

Whilst several species on the continent are thought to be adapted to low-light conditions, explicit records of these bees actually foraging at twilight or night are absent from the scientific literature.

Reepenia bituberculata. Image credit: James Dorey, Flinders University.

Reepenia bituberculata. Image credit: James Dorey, Flinders University.

Reepenia bituberculata and Meroglossa gemmata, the two bee species active at night and during twilight hours, are mostly found in Australia’s tropical north, but there could potentially more in arid, subtropical and maybe even temperate conditions across the continent,” said lead author James Dorey, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Science Engineering at Flinders University.

“We have confirmed the existence of at least two crepuscular bee species in Australia and there are likely to be many more that can forage both during the day and into the early morning or evening under low light conditions.”

“It’s true that bees aren’t generally known to be very capable when it comes to using their eyes at night, but it turns out that low-light foraging is more common than currently thought.”

Before this new study, the only way to show that a bee had adapted to low-light was by using difficult-to-obtain behavioral observations, but Dorey and colleagues found that they should be able to figure this out by using high-quality images of a specific bee.

“Our study provides a framework to help identify low-light-adapted bees and the data that is needed to determine the behavioral traits of other species,” Dorey said.

“This is important as we need to increase efforts to collect bee species outside of normal hours and publish new observations to better understand the role that they play in maintaining ecosystems.”

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J.B. Dorey et al. 2020. Morphometric comparisons and novel observations of diurnal and low-light-foraging bees. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 79: 117-144; doi: 10.3897/jhr.79.57308

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