These colorful bees (of the genus Homalictus ), which probably originated in tropical regions of Australia, have colonized many regions of Australia and the south-west Pacific. They glow with spots of aquamarine blue, gold green and orange, according to Aussie Bee, a website under the NGO The Australian Native Bee Research Center.
Although previous studies have suggested that the bees had come from Australia, the researchers had not yet examined their evolutionary history . Now, a new study has discovered that these precious insects originated in tropical regions of Australia and then spread to subtropical, temperate and arid regions of that country and, later, to the Pacific.
James Dorey, photographer and expert on native bees, and his colleagues analyzed mitochondrial DNA, genetic material found in the central cells of cells called mitochondria that is inherited throughout the maternal lineage, from three different species of Homalictus from Papua New Guinea. , the Pacific and Australia. By looking at the variations in the mitochondrial DNA of different species, the scientists were able to figure out where they came from and how they dispersed.
Previous research had found that other Australian bees, such as Exoneurella tridentate, actually originated in Antarctica millions of years ago.
The authors hope that understanding the origin of bees can help reveal how climate change may affect bees in the future.
Referencia: Halictidae) across Australia, Papua New Guinea and Pacific (2020) by S Ibalim, SVC Groom , JB Dorey, A Velasco-Castrillon, MP Schwarz and MI Stevens has been published in Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, DOI: 10.1080/03721426.2020.1740957
