According to Hattie Ellis, author of Sweetness & Light, a history of the honeybee, the first concrete evidence of these very energetic social creatures was found in New Jersey. The proof was discovered preserved in the form of the oldest known such fossil, a female honeybee “entombed in the hard orange glow of amber.”It’s thought that the presence of bees on this planet may go back to even before the existence of people, possibly before the existence of flowering plants upon which modern bees have come to depend for their existence through the production of honey.
These highly prolific insects have a favorably symbiotic relationship with the plants which they pollinate in gratitude for the nectar that is the source of their golden sweet product.
There are at least 22,000 named species of these little bugs, and they exist everywhere on the planet: From the Himalayas to the Arctic tundra and to all of the world’s climactic regions in between.
It wasn’t at all surprising, then, that I should have come across one of these busy little creatures making a momentary stop on one of the many flowers lining the boardwalk to the swimming beach. These creatures work fast – very fast. There is no wasted motion and no stopping to rest as they carry out their highly specialized task.
(Photo by Dick Bergeron, July, 2009)
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