Читать книгу Honey For Dummies - Howland Blackiston - Страница 12

It may not be a catchy name, but Discoscapa apicula is the binominal nomenclature, or commonly, the genus and species, of one of the oldest known species of bees. A rare specimen of this bee was preserved in Burmese amber that was found in what is now Myanmar (Southeast Asia). This bee, shown in Figure 1-1, is believed to date from the Cretaceous period, which was about 100 million years ago. To put that timeline in perspective, this bee was buzzing around during the same period that T-Rex was hunting for prey. Discoscapa apicula certainly shows some resemblance to the modern honey bee. Pollen grains were found on its legs that showed the bee had recently visited one or more flowers before becoming stuck inside a drop of resin and preserved for millions of years. You’ve got to wonder whether this bee also collected nectar and made honey? Maybe?

Courtesy of George Poinar

FIGURE 1-1: This little bee (entombed forever in amber) shared the earth with T-Rex, making it around 100 million years old. It’s the oldest known species of bee.

Eight thousand years ago, long before humans “domesticated” honey bees and became beekeepers, our early ancestors enjoyed the wonderful sweet qualities of the honey that bees made. They would hunt the honey from wild hives. No doubt a dangerous pursuit, climbing tall trees and sheer rock cropping to hunt down the bees and steal the honeycombs from the defensive occupants. In this early cave painting discovered in Biscorp, Spain, circa 6000 BC, we see a figure harvesting wild honey (see Figure 1-2). These early honey hunters found nutrition and energy from eating the wild honey, as well as rich protein from the bee brood.

Illustration by Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 1-2: Honey hunter collecting nourishment from a wild colony of bees.