Paratetrapedia, f, right, La Cruz, Costa Rica
Feeds Baby Oil. Yes, a subcult of the many bees of the world are those who, in addition to feeding their young pollen, feed them oil from plants that produce oil for that very purpose. Here is such a bee, a Paratetrapedia collected by Tim McMahon in Costa Rica. It has special hairs to transport the oil to the nest. It is unclear to me whether nectar is not eschewed by the these bees but oils are significant enough that both plants and bees have danced the evolutionary dance with oil as the music. Want to do something describe the nests of this group? Of the 30+ only 1 species has a described nest. This dark bee photographed by Anders Croft.
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 Wildeใ Original public domain image from Flickr