Scientists have discovered a species of bee that benefits from intensifying agriculture. Reported by the University of Pennsylvania.
Eucera pruinosaThe squash, or “squash” bee, lives in the United States and Mexico and was evolutionarily adapted to feed on wild gourds prior to the transition to agriculture. Biologists in general are concerned about the decline in the population of pollinators around the world, but this bee species, on the contrary, surprised researchers with an unexpected increase in their numbers.
Margarita López-Uribe and her colleagues sequenced the bee’s genome and studied its genetic diversity. As a result, DNA analysis allowed us to reconstruct evolutionary history. Eucera pruinosa. In particular, while approximately 20% of the bee genome carries traces of adaptation to cultivated pumpkin and squash, the genetic diversity of the species has decreased – mutations that did not benefit have been eliminated. In many ways, adaptation to cultivated plants is associated with a change in the insect’s chemosensing (ability to sense substances in the air around it).
“domestic plants Curcurbita (pumpkin) produces chemicals more easily than a wild plant Curcurbita, scientists say. – It’s possible pruinosa It has adapted to the new sensory environment in its agricultural habitats, which has allowed it to expand its range and significantly increase its population size.”
It was this adaptation that allowed the bee to settle not only in the Mexican deserts, but also in the United States and southern Canada.
Previously, scientists found that female spiders fake dead so male partners aren’t afraid of being beaten.