Articles
Bees and Wasps Compilation
In 2022, due to the fact of the large number of articles that bug evolutionism, I began putting multiple articles into loose categories. This one is BEES AND WASPS.
THE POINT HAS BEEN POWERFULLY PROVED: EVOLUTION IS A LIE!
(NO NEW ITEMS WILL BE ADDED AFTER JUNE 2, 2022.)
1. Bee Brains Aren't Pea Brains
2. Vulture Bees Evolved or Adapted to Eat Meat?
3. Navigational Genius — Not Just for the Birds
4. Hornets and Hexagons
5. INSECT STINGS: Did insects such as bees and wasps have stingers before Adam sinned?
6. Honeybee Design Saves Energy
7. Honeybees: How Sweet It Is, Again
8. Hungry Bumblebees Hurry Pollen Production
Bee Brains Aren't Pea Brains
By Frank Sherwin, M.A. JULY 11, 2019
In 2005, biologists were stunned to discover that humans might not all look the same to honeybees. A study has found that bees can learn to recognize human faces in photos, and remember them for at least two days. 1
Twelve years later, Science magazine published an article describing the “unprecedented cognitive flexibility” of bees using a ball to get a reward. 2 Biologist Loukola said,
I think the most important result in our case was that bumblebees can not just copy others but they can improve upon what they are learning…This is of course amazing for small-brained insects—even for us, it’s difficult to improve on something when we are copying others. 3
It seems these tiny invertebrates—small-brained insects, mind you—have been designed with the extraordinary ability to reason and learn. In 2019, it was discovered that bees can link symbols to numbers. “We know bees get the concept of zero and can do basic math. Now researchers have discovered they may also be capable of connecting symbols to numbers.” 4
Authors of an amazing bee article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B give a more detailed overview of this same research. “Here we show that honeybees are able to learn to match a sign to a numerosity, or a numerosity to a sign, and subsequently transfer this knowledge to novel numerosity stimuli changed in colour properties, shape and configuration.” 5
A neuron is a nerve cell through which electrochemical impulses are transmitted. A whale’s brain has over 200 billion neurons, human brains have an estimated 86 billion neurons, and a honeybee’s (Apis mellifera) brain contains fewer than one million neurons. However, “Despite their tiny brains bees are capable of extraordinary feats of behavior,” said Dr. Nigel Raine, from Royal Holloway’s school of biological sciences at the University of London. 6
But researchers are finding that it’s not necessarily the mass or sheer number of neurons in an animal that accounts for the creature’s cognition—it seems rather to lie in the neural circuits, specifically the circuits’ interconnectivity and modularity. 7 It appears the neural circuits must be arranged and connected in a very specific manner in order to function as optimally as they do.
Yes, bees are designed with a brain the size of a grass seed with less than one million neurons, and yet they can recognize human faces, count, improve upon what they are learning, do basic math, link symbols to numbers, and navigate using spatial memory with a “rich, map-like organization.” 8
As an evolutionist said, “These are, high, high, highly intelligent creatures,” 3 Agreed. One must ask: Are bees the result of time and chance or plan, purpose, and creation?
References
1. Lucentini, J. Bees can recognize human faces, study finds. Physorg and World Science. Posted on phys.org December 11, 2005, accessed June 18, 2019.
2. Loukola, O. et al. 2017. Bumblebees show cognitive flexibility by improving on an observed complex behavior. Science. V. 355: 833-36.
3. Hugo, K. Intelligence test shows bees can learn to solve tasks from other bees. PBS. Posted on pbs.org February 23, 2017, accessed June 19, 2019.
4. Sciencedaily.com, June 5, 2019. Bees can link symbols to numbers, study finds. Sciencedaily. Posted on sciencedaily.com June 5, 2019, accessed June 19, 2019.
5. Howard, S. et al. 2019. Symbolic representation of numerosity by honeybees [Apis mellifera]: matching characters to small quantities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 286, 1904.
6. Bees’ tiny brains beat computers, study finds. The Guardian. Posted on theguardian.com October 24, 2010 accessed June 18, 2019.
7. Chittka, L. and J. Niven. 2009. Are Bigger Brains Better? Current Biology. 19 (21): R995-R1008
8. Menzel, et al. 2005. Honey bees navigate according to a map-like spatial memory. PNAS. 102 (8): 3040–3045.
https://www.icr.org/article/bee-brains-arent-pea-brains/
Vulture Bees Evolved or Adapted to Eat Meat?
by David Rives 1-19-22
We know that vultures eat dead animals and are helpful in cleaning up those rotting remains, but did you know there are also bees that eat carrion? With all the talk of killer bees and murder hornets, here are some bees we can be thankful for!
Vulture bees, as they have been named, have been found to have acid in their guts similar to the stomach acid of other animals that feed on carrion, like vultures and hyenas. While there are only three species of vulture bees that exclusively consume dead meat, there are other bees that will eat both nectar and animal carcasses.
Researchers extracted DNA from different bees’ abdomens – typical vegetarian bees, bees that feed on both meat and pollen, and bees that feed only on meat – and found that vulture bees have a more acidic gut and different types of bacteria than the other bees. God knew that certain bacteria and acid were needed for digesting their unusual meals without getting sick. While researchers claim the vulture bees’ honey is still sweet to eat, I think I’ll stick to the wildflower honey!
According to secularists, these bees have evolved to get their protein only from dead meat. We know that God created these bees to do what they do. From the beginning, He gave them the information needed to feast on carrion. While the bees adapted to eat dead flesh after the fall in the garden, this isn’t due to evolving over 80 million years as suggested by secularists. Without God’s environmental clean-up system, the world would be full of decaying plants and animals, which would lead to more disease. It’s a good reminder to be thankful for the system God has put in place to help keep the world clean.
https://davidrivesministries.org/vulture-bees-evolved-or-adapted-to-eat-meat-by-david-rives/
Navigational Genius — Not Just for the Birds
By Eric Cassell November 16, 2021
(The following is an excerpt from Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts, from Discovery Institute Press.)
Approximately 3.5 trillion insects migrate annually just within the United Kingdom.2 The magnitude and scope of insect migration is impressive. So too is their steadiness of purpose in these long treks. It used to be thought that insect migration basically consisted of moving with the wind, in whatever direction it happened to be blowing, but research has shown otherwise. Studies of insect migration in the UK found that the direction of migration is consistently north in the spring and south in the fall, and the insects frequently fly in a direction different from the prevailing winds.3 Clearly these insect navigators have a purpose they are pursuing, wind direction be hanged.
Bee Navigation
Purpose and tenacity are common hallmarks of insect navigators. Take honey bees. They face many navigational difficulties related to foraging and establishing new colonies. In covering as much as 150 square miles around a nest,4 they use several methods of navigating, including visual landmarks, sun compass, and polarized light compass. Each is employed depending upon the circumstances. Under good visual conditions with sufficient references the bees navigate primarily by visual landmarks, while also maintaining the sun-compass information. On cloudy days when the sun is not directly visible they can use the polarized sunlight compass.
When a scout bee locates a good feeding source, it navigates back to the hive and communicates the location of the feeding source through what is known as a waggle dance. The Goulds call this curious dance “the second most information-rich exchange in the animal world,”5 second only to human language. That is quite a statement considering the communication is by insects with only 950,000 neurons, compared to humans with about eighty-five billion. Honey bee brains are less than one cubic millimeter in size.6 That is, a thousand of their brains together wouldn’t amount to even a single cubic centimeter. A curiosity is that honey bees have brains only about half the volume of bumble bee brains, yet exhibit a larger repertoire and more complex behaviors than bumble bees.7
While the details of the waggle dance are still not completely understood, a significant amount of research, starting with Karl von Frisch, has revealed the basic methodology. The behavior develops in adult honey bees who have emerged from the pupa stage and chewed through the protective cell to join the colony. Honey bees are able to interpret the dance after about one week. The development includes electrophysiological changes in brain neurons, evident when comparing mature foragers with newly emerged bees.8 Therefore, the behavior appears to be a combination of innate capabilities and pre-programmed learning.
To Do the Waggle Dance
The waggle dance consists of several elements that convey navigation information. The waggle itself is where the bee shakes its body at a rate of about 15 times per second. This occurs during the middle of a sequence where the bee movement is in the form of a figure eight. The orientation of the bee during the waggle portion of the dance conveys the direction of the food source. The way this is done is not straightforward. The orientation of the movement is relative to the vertical direction on the honeycomb wall in the hive. The angle between the direction of the dance and vertical represents the angle of the vector of the food source relative to the sun. If the direction of the food source is toward the sun, the dance orientation is vertical (regardless of what direction the sun actually is). If the direction is 40 degrees clockwise from the sun, the dance orientation is 40 degrees clockwise (or right) of vertical.
The dance and associated vector information are relative to gravity and not to Earth’s geomagnetic field, as some had speculated.9 However, the vector angle communicated in the dance is relative to the sun. This means that honey bees have a mechanism for detecting the gravitational field, although the exact mechanism is yet to be determined.10
The duration of the dance conveys the distance of the source, where one waggle run (in the figure eight) signifies a standard distance, which varies between five and fifty yards, depending upon the species. How the bee calculates distance is still to be determined. Some suggest it is based on optic flow, the progression of objects across the animal’s visual scene.11
In any case, the waggle dance communicates the full vector information (direction and distance) necessary for other bees to locate the food source. Another impressive aspect of the waggle-dance communication: it compensates for the movement of the sun over time. Thus, when the bees perform the dance and convey the vector angle leading to the food source, they adjust the angle based on the time of day.
A Most Complex Behavior
Everything about this behavior is complex. It starts with bee foragers being able to determine the distance and compass heading relative to the food source. The bees must then translate this information into a message they convey to other bees via the dance. Other bees in the nest then must be able to interpret this information and use it to navigate to the food source. How can their tiny bee brains manage all this? Australian biologists Andrew Barron and Jenny Plath note that despite bee researchers investigating the subject at great length, “We still know very little about the neurobiological mechanisms supporting how dances are produced and interpreted.”12
The temperate-zone honey bee waggle dance, it’s been postulated, may have evolved from the dwarf honey bee (Apis andreniformis and Apis florea), which resides in the tropics. Dwarf bees build their hives in the open with a nearly flat top. Their waggle dance is oriented directly toward the food source.13 Several decades ago Martin Lindauer proposed a similar process, where the complexity of the waggle-dance communication evolved incrementally.14
While these theories may appear reasonable at first blush, given the complexity of the behavior it is unclear how a Darwinian process can be a plausible explanation. There is a suite of individual capabilities and behaviors involved (including navigation, data processing, mathematics, and communication), requiring an engineering process as well as the development of computational algorithms, which are encoded in the brains of honey bees. Such information-rich programs are not known to spring up through a series of small, purposeless evolutionary steps, with or without the benefit of something like natural selection. And there is nothing approaching a detailed proposal, credible or otherwise, for how these complexities might have developed in the case of honey bee communication and navigation.
https://evolutionnews.org/2021/11/navigational-genius-not-just-for-the-birds/
Hornets and Hexagons
By Barrie Fraser 24 January 2018
“God eternally geometrizes.” Plato
In Twin Rock Valley I stood in the kitchen of an old abandoned farmhouse. The large double kitchen windows were long since gone so you were open to the summer air and sunshine. A hornet alighted on the weathered window frame and began chewing off bits of wood. You could hear the scratching sound of her mouth parts cutting into the wood. I say her because females are responsible for nest building.
The bits of wood the hornet was shaving off the window would be mixed with her saliva to form a pulp. Back at the nest she and her fellow workers would mould the pulp into multiple layers of paper to form a globular nest. The pulp would also be used to form the core of nursery cells within the nest. The hornet belonged to the bald-faced hornet family, which are black with black and white face markings. These types of hornets always build their nests in the open.
There was a lot going on inside that little hornet. Her genetic DNA was giving her many instructions. Even when she was just a larva growing in the cell within the nest at a certain stage of her growth she, on her own, closed in the top of her cell and inside transformed into a fully grown hornet. When she emerged from the cell her DNA instructed her as to what jobs she was to perform in the building and care of the nest. She was given the ability to make paper and form it into exquisite nests. Perhaps her greatest ability, though, was to make perfect hexagons. All the cells within the nest are hexagonal in shape.
A hexagon is pure geometry. It’s a six-sided figure with all sides and angles congruent. In the world of man-made things the most common use of a hexagon is in the manufacturing of nuts and bolts. The shape of most lead pencils is also hexagonal.
If you were to ask nuts and bolts manufacturers why they use a hexagon they would likely say that with a hexagon a mechanic has to give the nut just one sixth of turn before repositioning his or her wrench. Before “hexanuts” were introduced over a hundred years ago the traditional shape of nuts and bolts was square. With the square shape a mechanic had to give the nut a quarter turn before repositioning the wrench. Another advantage to a hexagon is that there is enough flat surface for the wrench to grip on. If the nut were an octagon, for example, the wrench would simply slip.
Regarding hornets the question could also be asked as to why they use the hexagon shape in manufacturing their nursery cells. The most obvious answer is for strength. The angles within a hexagon are 120 degrees. When two hexagons are placed side by side the outside angles produced are also 120 degrees. This allows for multiple hexagons to be fitted snugly together. Such would not be possible with a circle or octagon. There would be empty spaces between them. It would be possible with a square or equilateral triangle but the walls of neither of those have the structural strength of a hexagon. Plus, the hexagon’s circular shape ideally accommodates that of the growing hornet within the cell.
Another question we may ask is “How did a little creature like the hornet on the window frame come to possess the ability to build hexagons?” David Attenborough in his book Life On Earth would say that it was by “chance genetical changes” that she acquired the ability to make hexagons. The problem with that answer is that hexagons are not formed by chance. There is a knowledge of mathematics required. Someone may say, “Well, it’s obvious a hornet doesn’t study math!” But the fact remains that it makes hexagons. Math had to enter the picture somewhere in the hornet’s existence.
A second answer as to how the little hornet in Twin Rock could make hexagons is that hornets were given the ability to do so when they were first created. This makes sense because God, who is said to be a thinking being, would have a knowledge of mathematics. The problem, though, with that answer is that it involves God. Current scientific thought doesn’t allow for God to have anything to do with the physical universe. So without God a person is left, like David Attenborough, with the first answer, chance. As Dan Hector MacPhail, a former resident of Twin Rock Valley would say, “To my way of thinking” I would agree with the second answer, God gave hornets the ability to make hexagons. Chance just doesn’t cut it.
https://www.invernessoran.ca/top-story/columns-and-letters/985-hornets-and-hexagons
INSECT STINGS: Did insects such as bees and wasps have stingers before Adam sinned?
By Diane Eager 10-13-21
We normally think of insect stingers as weapons, and therefore they would not be needed in the original very good world. They are certainly used as weapons in the fallen and cursed world we now live in, so many claim they must have been designed specifically for this purpose. Sceptics and evolutionists also throw this at Christians. The stingers of wasps and bees are sharp and can penetrate human skin, and are used to inject poisonous chemicals. This is not good, so were insects created with them, or were they added after the Fall of Man and God’s judgement?
For insects to be changed from having no stingers and venom into insects with them a lot of extra genes would have to be added. It is unlikely that God added extra genes to insects as part of his judgement, since such new modified insects would be significantly different from the original created ones. They would have a lot of extra genes not found in the original insects, and therefore no longer be the same kind. Yet Genesis tells us that all living things were made according to their kinds, and all our studies of them show they reproduce after their kind. Genesis also states God finished all his creating on the sixth day (Genesis 2:1-2). Therefore, there is no need to add convoluted theological theories that God added anything to living creatures after the fall.
Research has also shown that the stinger-venom systems of wasps and bees are not only very complex but very interdependent. Insects do need a lot of genes to make both the stingers and the venoms so they can work together, all of which would have been required to make them useful functioning systems under the control of the insects.
We need to look more closely at the structure and function of the stingers and venom. Do they show any evidence of creative design and useful functions?
The stingers certainly show evidence of clever design. The wasp stinger has been studied carefully as a model for a micro-injection system that could be used in medicine. If scientists do manage to build something like it by modern-day nanotechnology it will be proof that the original must have been designed by more intelligent creator, who did not need anything to copy.
Let’s also look at the chemicals in insect venoms. These vary in chemical composition between the different species, but they all break down organic matter. That is why they are so painful and do real damage to your skin if you are stung. Could there be a good purpose for this? The answer is an overwhelming yes. Breaking down organic matter is a useful function, especially for female insects wanting a safe place to lay their eggs and provide nutrients for the offspring, and this is what wasps use their stingers for. Only female wasps have stingers, and the stingers are their egg laying devices named ovipositors. They are very well designed for penetrating plants stems or fruits, and in the original good world wasps would have laid their eggs in plants, or built nests and suppled them with plant matter. No humans or animals would be harmed. Stingers and chemical certainly would have had a useful and good purpose in the original created world. Today many species of wasp still lay their eggs in plants or in plant matter.
So, what changed after human sin and God’s judgement came into the world? The behaviour of humans and animals certainly did. By Noah’s day the world was filled with violence of both humans and animals. Today’s Bees and wasps only sting if they are disturbed, especially if their nest is under threat.
After Noah’s Flood the environment degenerated and plant food became less plentiful and less nutritious, therefore, some animals took to preying on other animals. Female insects unable to find nutritious plant foods to lay their eggs in became parasites by injecting their eggs into other insects’ larvae. This behaviour has been used as evidence by sceptics, including Darwin, that there couldn’t be a good Creator God. However, parasites and predators are the result of degeneration of the world that occurred after it was corrupted by sin and cursed as a part of God’s judgement. They were not God’s original purpose, so don’t blame God for the horrible things in the world.
What about honeybees? Their stingers are not ovipositors, and worker bee stingers have barbs on them that make it almost impossible for the bee to extract the stinger after stinging human or mammalian skin without tearing it from the bee, which kills the bee. But that is proof that God did not design honeybees to sting people, since causing a fatal injury a bee is not good at all, so this use was not part of God’s original design.
The reason the sting is unable to be extracted is that human (and mammal) skin contains a dense flexible meshwork of collagen and elastic fibres immediately under the epidermis. The bee stinger gets caught in these and can’t be extracted. However, if the bee stings another insect, which has a chitin cuticle, it can extract the sting. Therefore, it is useful for defending the hive from other insects. However, warfare between insects is part of the fallen world, so it would not be the original function either, even if it is useful now. Are there any indications that bee stings have any other function?
There is a clue in the nature of the venom – it is a good antiseptic that kills microorganisms. A beehive is warm and humid, and is a good environment for microbes to flourish. Therefore, the bees need to keep the hive clean and have some means of keeping microbes under control. The chemicals found in venom are found on the outer surface of the cuticles of adult bees and on the surfaces of wax structures in the hive. One study of chemicals in bee venoms led one group of researchers to report: “Our results confirm the idea that the venom functions are well beyond the classical stereotype of defence against predators, and suggest that the different nesting biology of these species may be related to the use of the venom in a social immunity context.” They went on to conclude: “The presence of antimicrobial peptides on the comb wax of the cavity-dwelling species and on the cuticle of workers of all the studied species represents a good example of ‘collective immunity’ and a component of the ‘social immunity’ respectively.” Reference: David Baracchia, Simona Francese and Stefano Turillazziac, “Beyond the antipredatory defence: Honey bee venom function as a component of social immunity” Toxicon 9 September 2011, doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2011.08.017.
Similar results have been found for other social insects, which also maintain large nests that would be good breeding grounds for bacteria and fungi. Keeping microbes under control is a useful function, and would be needed in the original good world. Therefore, it is more likely that insect venoms were originally designed for this ecological function, rather than a purely defence/attack function.
This does not explain the structure of the honeybee stinger, which is well designed for penetrating non-fibrous organic matter. It is possible it has a function in nest construction and maintenance that has yet to be found because no-one has bothered to look for it. Hopefully, further research will find out.
This is a challenge to biologists to stop looking at the world purely as a Darwinian “struggle for life” but look for evidence of creative design that has been corrupted by changes in behaviour or loss of function. Changes in behaviour, such as insects stinging people and animals, may be a reaction to overall degeneration of the environment and loss of food sources and suitable habitat, and irresponsible behaviour by people.
https://askjohnmackay.com/insect-stings-did-insects-such-as-bees-and-wasps-have-stingers-before-adam-sinned/
Also, see: Dragonfly's Demise
Honeybee Design Saves Energy
By Frank Sherwin, June 24, 2021
Biomimicry is the making of systems or materials that are modeled after flora or fauna found in God’s creation (e.g. the artificial fabric Velcro is modeled after burrs).
Scientists have uncovered and learned from many creatures in God’s creation—for example, from a host of insects 1 and especially the bee, with its honeycomb design that has inspired the production of insulation, aircraft parts, and cardboard boxes.
It is not surprising that entomologists have yet again learned from this industrious insect, this time in regard to minute hairs on the honeybee that reduce friction. 2 This design clearly shows 3 God’s engineering in living systems. 4
When observing the honeybee, one can see the constant straightening and curving of its abdomen—this creates friction of the outer plates of the exoskeleton. One would expect that such movement over time would cause significant wear. However, there was very little, and a group of scientists wanted to know why. Using an electron microscope, they viewed the abdominal plates and were surprised to see tiny branched hairs. They hypothesized these may have something to do with friction reduction and set up a series of experiments measuring abdominal segment movement with and without the hairs.
As the load increased, friction for the hairless surface rose, whereas no obvious rise in friction was observed for the hairy surface. The researchers calculated that the hairy surface reduced abrasion during abdominal contraction by about 60% and also saved energy with each contraction. This adds up to a large amount of conserved energy that is essential for conducting bees' daily activities, the researchers say. 2
This discovery could be incorporated by bioengineers in designing longer-lasting moving parts that “someday [could] be used to extend the lifetime of engineered soft devices, such as actuators and hinges.” 2
One cannot help but be reminded of the words in Proverbs 6, “Look to the ant, thou sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise.” 5
Of course, not all scientist are sluggards, but they would do well to continue to investigate and possibly mimic the intelligent design found in the insects in God’s world.
References
1. Sherwin, F. 2007. The Amazing Jewel Beetle. Acts & Facts. 36 (5).
2. American Chemical Society. Honeybees' hairy abdomens show how to save energy, reduce wear on materials. PhysOrg. Posted on phys.org. June 9, 2021.
3. Romans 1:20.
4. Tomkins, J. P. 2015. Optimized Design Models Explain Biological Systems. Acts & Facts. 44 (2).
5. Proverbs 6:6.
https://www.icr.org/article/honeybee-design-saves-energy/
Honeybees: How Sweet It Is, Again
BY JAMES J. S. JOHNSON, J.D., TH.D. JULY 06, 2020
After some scary population downturns and scarier rumors of bee populations crashing, honeybees are making a comeback, populationally speaking.1,2 After a year of devastatingly bad news,3 bounce-back statistics on honeybee populations are now making for sweet news.
Honeybees are coming back after record losses in 2019, a survey of U.S. beekeepers says. The Bee Informed Partnership says this past winter [measured from October 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020] was one of the smallest loss of colonies in 14 years. Researchers credit better management by beekeepers for the resurgence in colonies. … According to the partnership survey, beekeepers lost a little more than 22% of their colonies over the past winter compared to the average wintertime loss of 28%.1
Beating the average is good. But beating last year’s disappointment is even better, because the record losses in 2019 (which means the winter of 2018-2019) were counted at 37.7% loss, unhappily setting record for winter losses.3
So, what are the major problems with bee populations anyway?
"The reason why colonies can die are very multiple and that's unfortunately, the complex reality of honeybee health is that there are multiple drivers that are affecting honeybee health. We usually categorize them in categories of what we call the four Ps, which is pests, pathogens, poor nutrition and pesticides.” Dr. Nathalie Steinhauer of the University of Maryland says.1
The statistics are based upon a very large sample database, about 1/10 of the honeybees registered with the Bee Informed partnership.
According to the Bee Informed Partnership (which includes the University of Maryland), more than 3,377 beekeepers managing 276,832 colonies across the United States responded to the survey. The university says this represents more than 10% of the nation’s estimated 2.67 million managed colonies.2
Of course, honeybees are blessings to our world in direct and indirect ways.
Honey bees are essential for the pollination of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and support about $20 billion worth of [annual] crop production in the U.S., … [according to] Matthew Mulica, senior project manager at the Keystone Policy Center, a consulting company that works with the Honey Bee Health Coalition.3
A direct benefit provided by honeybees is the honey they produce. Many of us enjoy with it our food, such as an ingredient in energy bars, or mixed in oatmeal, or as a sweetener in coffee, or infused into honey-baked hams, or spread upon baked salmon as part of a honey-mustard sauce, etc.
The Bible reports honey as a nutritious and valued food.4 Honey was consumed by Samson, Jonathan, and John the Baptist.5 The ultimate example of honey’s importance occurred when the risen Christ ate honeycomb with broiled fish to prove unto His disciples that He really was resurrected in His physical body.5
Honeybees also indirectly benefit the global ecosystem by pollinating many plants, which are later eaten as foods or are otherwise useful.3 So it’s always good news when honeybee populations are surviving and thriving!
But there’s more in the busy buzzing lives of honeybees.
Honeybees—as well as other sorts of bees—can exhibit, for those with eyes to see, God’s bioengineering genius in how He has providentially designed and constructed these tiny flying insects for their busy activities.
Bees never crash, even when they land on an upside-down surface. Their efficient landings show that current landing techniques for aircraft and spacecraft are overly complicated. Aircraft designers could learn a lot from a bee.6
Yes, bees are designed with a brain the size of a grass seed with less than one million neurons, and yet they can recognize human faces, count, improve upon what they are learning, do basic math, link symbols to numbers, and navigate using spatial memory with a “rich, map-like organization.”7
As it turns out, orphan genes unique to social honey bees (Apis mellifera) play an important role in all the different glands and organs mentioned above where gene expression was specifically measured and quantified in each structure. Even the brain and midgut were found to contain significant levels of orphan-gene expression—which makes sense in light of the honey bees' unique social behavior and diet. And not only are orphan genes uniquely expressed in specific organs, they were also found to play a major role in gene expression differences between forager and nurse workers. While bees initially grow and develop using the same genome, epigenetic changes (chemical tags in the chromosomes) allow them to diversify into two different specialized social roles in the colony.8
The list could go on. Bee bodies and behaviors provide biotechnology we can learn from and blessings we directly and indirectly benefit from, as well as countless opportunities to just enjoy marveling at what God has done in and with these winged wonders.9 It’s good news that honeybee populations are thriving!
References
1. Staff writer. U.S. Honeybees Making Comeback, Survey Shows. Voice of America News. Posted on voanews.com June 23, 2020, accessed June 30, 2020.
2. Bruckner, S., N. Steinhauer, J. Engelsma, et al. 2019-2020 Honey Bee Colony Losses in the United States: Preliminary Results. Bee Informed Partnership. Posted on beeinformed.org June 22, 2020, accessed June 30, 2020.
3. Jacobo, J. Nearly 40% Decline in Honey Bee Population Last Winter ‘Unsustainable’, Experts Say. ABC News. Posted on abcnews.com July 9, 2019, accessed June 30, 2020.
4. Genesis 43:11; Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 8:8; Proverbs 24:13; Psalm 119:103; etc. See also Morris, H. M. Milk and Honey. Days of Praise. Posted on ICR.org September 16, 1995, accessed June 30, 2020.
5. Judges 14:8-9 (Samson); 1 Samuel 14:25-29 (Jonathan); Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6 (John the Baptist); Luke 24:36-43 (the risen Christ).
6. Thomas, B. 2010. Bee Landing Strategy May Lead to Better Aircraft. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org January 12, 2010, accessed June 30, 2020.
7. Sherwin, F. 2019. Bee Brains Aren’t Pea Brains. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org July 11, 2019, accessed June 30, 2020. See also Ropes, M. 2000. Mary Jones and her Bible. Tain, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 134-137. Bees specifically recognized a Welsh honey-collector, Mary Jones, as harmless, so they never stung her.
8. Tomkins, J. 2015. Honey Bee Orphan Genes Sting Evolution. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org February 19, 2015, accessed June 30, 2020.
9. Johnson, J. J. S. 2011. Our Daily Bread: How Food Proves Providence. Acts & Facts. 40(4): 8-9.
https://www.icr.org/article/honeybees-how-sweet-it-is-again/
Hungry Bumblebees Hurry Pollen Production
By James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D. May 30, 2020
May and June are abuzz with busy bees, really clever bumblebees.1,2 And their practical cleverness continues to astonish researchers, as a recently published study in the journal Science illustrates.3,4
Bees have been delighting creationists for generations.1,5-7 These intelligent creatures can distinguish different humans from each other, as individuals, retaining memory of who is whom.1,5 Bees have remarkable math skills and communication abilities, including their use of “waggle dance” to inform other bees about where to find food.2,5,6
Now, the latest research on bee behavior is showing how bumblebees accelerate the developmental process of flowering plants when pollen-hungry bees are not satisfied with the ripeness of the plant’s blossoming.
When deprived of pollen, bumblebees will nibble on the leaves of flowerless plants. The damage done seems to fool the plant into flowering, sometimes up to 30 days earlier than normal.3
The Swiss researchers summarized their findings in the journal Science, noting how the bees were successful in hurrying the plants’ pollen production, which benefited the bumblebees.6
Subsequent outdoor experiments showed that the intensity of damage inflicted varies with local flower availability; furthermore, workers from wild colonies of two additional bumble bee species were also observed to damage plant leaves. These findings elucidate a feature of bumble bee worker behavior that can influence the local availability of floral resources.4
Naturally, the scientists attempted to replicate the bees’ flowering-acceleration trick. Surely brilliant scientists could mimic the bees’ behavior, and get similar results. If bees can do it, can’t humans? Unfortunately, the scientists “have struggled to replicate the bees’ trick in the laboratory.”3
When the researchers tried to emulate the damage done to the plants by the bumblebees they weren't able to achieve the same results. The bee-damaged plants flowered 30 days earlier than undamaged plants and 25 days earlier than ones damaged by the scientists. The research team believes there may be something else going on here apart from nibbles.3
The scientists speculated that the bees are providing some kind of cue to the plants that is “specific to the bee…[perhaps] secretions that we don’t know about.”3 Further investigation is required to fully understand this process.
The researchers say the damage has a particular pattern that the scientists have learned to recognize… "You see these semi-circular sort of incisions, often in the leaf," said Dr Mescher. "One of the students was saying that they were eating a salad the other day, and they saw that kind of damage on the leaf that was probably from a bumblebee." The researchers say that when pollen is available the bees don't damage plants. They've also found this behaviour is in wild bees.3
The providential programming of these honey-loving, hive-building, precision-flying, and flower-accelerating insects should prompt observers to admire and appreciate the glorious God who gave these winged wonders their marvelous hardware-and-software systems, that accomplish these interactive activities.5-9
However, although properly amazed at what bees are doing, evolutionists lamentably assign the credit for the bees’ abilities to nature—to the creation itself, rather than unto the Creator. Professor de Moraes said, “It absolutely increases our sense of wonder at the cleverness of nature in all its many forms.”3
However, to Bible-believing creationists, it makes good sense that bees can do such astounding feats—because creation scientists recognize that the infinitely clever and almighty Creator-God providentially programmed these little buzzing bumblebees, to have internal intelligence to do what they busily do.7,10
References
1. Sherwin, F. Bee Brains Aren’t Pea Brains. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org July 11, 2019, accessed May 27, 2020. See also Ropes, M. 2000. Mary Jones and her Bible. Tain, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 134-137. Bees specifically recognized Mary Jones as harmless and never stung her. Compare how bees and/or hornets often chase and sting others (Deuteronomy 1:44 & 7:20; Psalm 118:12; Exodus 23:28; Joshua 24:12).
2. Sherwin, F. 2018. Bees Are Actually Really, Really Smart. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org July 19, 2018, accessed May 27, 2020.
3. Staff Writer. Nature: Bumblebees' 'Clever Trick' Fools Plants into Flowering. BBC News. Posted on bbc.com May 21, 2020, accessed May 27, 2020.
4. Pashalidou, F. G., H. Lambert, et al. 2020. Bumble bees damage plant leaves and accelerate flower production when pollen is scarce. Science. 368(6493): 881-884.
5. Sherwin, F. 2006. Un-bee-lievable Vision. Acts & Facts. 35(2). See also Johnson, J. J. S. 2019. Bees Need to Know! Nordic Legacy Series. Fort Worth, TX: Norwegian Society of Texas.
6. Tomkins, J. 2019. Complex Creature Engineering Requires a Creator. Acts & Facts. 48(8). See also Collison, C. A Closer Look: Waggle Dances. Bee Culture. Posted on BeeCulture.com April 23, 2018, accessed May 27, 2020. The classic movie on bees’ “waggle dancing” communication is Dr. Irwin Moon’s City of the Bees. (See Moon, I. 2004. City of the Bees. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.) It was this same Dr. Irwin Moon who providentially inspired ICR’s founder, Dr. Henry Morris, to harness science for teaching God’s truth. “Dr. Irwin Moon brought his ‘Sermons from Science’ lectures to the El Paso Auditorium in 1941. He gave a lecture on the significance of the great Flood … H. M. [the future Dr. Henry M. Morris] had never heard anything like this before, and it stimulated an interest that remained with him for the rest of his life. Dr. Moon’s messages generated a confidence in the absolute authority and scientific accuracy of the Bible—a conviction he had not known before.” Quoting Rebecca Morris Barber’s biography of her father (Barber, R. 2017. Henry M. Morris, Father of Modern Creationism. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 76).
7. Tomkins, J. Honey Bee Orphan Genes Sting Evolution. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org February 19, 2015, accessed May 27, 2020.
8. Thomas, B. 2010. Bee Landing Strategy May Lead to Better Aircraft. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org January 12, 2010, accessed May 27, 2020.
9. Thomas, B. Bees Solve Math Problems Faster than Computers. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org November 2, 2010, accessed May 27, 2020.
10. Johnson, J. J. S. 2017. Clever Creatures: ‘Wise from Receiving Wisdom’. Acts & Facts. 46(3):21.
https://www.icr.org/article/hungry-bumblebees-hurry-pollen-production/
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