A lesser-known tropical bee has evolved an extra tooth to bite meat and a gut that is more similar to vultures than other bees.

Normally, bees do not eat meat. However, a species of stingless bee in the tropics has evolved the ability to do so, presumably due to fierce competition for nectar.

University of California, Riverside (UCR) entomologist Doug Yanega said: “These bees are the only bees in the world that have evolved to use non-plant-produced food sources. This is a very significant change in eating habits.”

The intestines of bees, bumblebees and stingless bees are colonized by the same five core microorganisms. "Unlike humans who change their intestines with every meal, most bee species have retained these same bacteria during approximately 80 million years of evolution," said Jessica Macaro, a UCR entomology doctoral student.

Given their radical changes in food choices, a team of UCR scientists wanted to know whether the gut bacteria of vulture bees were different from the gut bacteria of typical vegetarian bees. According to a study published by the team today in the journal mBio of the American Association of Microbiologists, the differences between them are very large. 

To track these changes, the researchers went to Costa Rica, where these bees are known to live. They set up bait-hung fresh raw chicken on the branches and coated it with petroleum jelly to drive away the ants. 

The bait has successfully attracted vulture bees and related species, which opportunistically feed on meat for protein. Usually, stingless bees have a basket for collecting pollen on their hind legs. However, the research team observed that carrion bees use the same structure to collect bait. "They have very few chicken baskets," said Quinn McFredrick, an entomologist at UCR.

For comparison, the team also collected stingless bees that feed on meat and flowers, and some only feed on pollen. When analyzing the microbiomes of all three types of bees, they found that pure meat eaters had the most extreme changes. 

"The vulture bee microbiome is rich in acidophilic bacteria, which is a new type of bacteria that their relatives don't have," McFredrick said. "These bacteria are similar to those found in real vultures, hyenas, and other carrion animals, presumably to help protect them from pathogens that appear on carrion."

One type of bacteria that exists in vultures is Lactobacillus, which is found in many human fermented foods, such as yeast. They have also been found to contain Clostridium bacteria, which is related to the digestion of meat. 

"Bees can eat carcasses, which is crazy to me. We might get sick because of all the microorganisms in meat competing with each other and releasing toxins that are very unfavorable to us," Macaro said. 

The researchers pointed out that these bees are unusual in many ways. "Even if they can't sting, they are not defenseless, and many species are very annoying," Yanega said. "They range from truly harmless species to many species that bite people, to secretions that produce blisters in the jaw, causing painful sores on the skin."

In addition, although they feed on meat, it is said that their honey is still sweet and edible. Maccaro said: "They store the meat in special secret rooms, which were sealed for two weeks before they entered, and these secret rooms are separated from the place where the honey is stored."

The research team is planning to further study the vulture bee microbiome, hoping to understand the genomes of all bacteria, fungi and viruses in their bodies. 

Ultimately, they hope to learn more about the greater role that microbes play in overall bee health. 

McFredrick said: "The strange things in the world are where many interesting discoveries can be found." "There are many insights into the results of natural selection."

-This press release was originally published on the University of California Riverside website

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