Andrena obscuripennis, male, left, Clarke
Andrena obscuripennis, male, left, Clarke
The male Bear Andrena. Andrena obscuripennis. All bee species have males and females. Male bees are different from humans in that they are haploid not diploid (it would appear there are other differences, but those are not the interest at hand). Functionally that means that they are produced sans sexual reproduction and any female (bumble bee workers too!) can just pump out and egg and it will become a male (I presume this means that all that molecular material from said female is basically copied over to the male). While this is standard Hymenoptera dogma, what I can't seem to find out is why then do males often look so different from females? Often quite radically so. How does having only your Mom's chromosomes make you (the boy bee) look like a boy bee? Having these musings floating around makes me wonder if the world would be a better place if human males were haploid instead of diploid, did no real work to support a family, drank nectar all day, and whose sole purpose was to mate? Sadly, dear Techniterns, no one filled out the Bee Picture log so I can't tell who took this picture.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr