Two New Species Of Bees, Which Became Extinct Before Being Discovered, Found In Africa

An international team of researchers has studied stingless bees from East Africa that were encased in tree resin and copal.

The research team studied a total of 36 bees, including the two new species. Photo: Senckenberg

New Delhi: An international team of researchers has studied stingless bees from East Africa that were encased in tree resin and copal. The study, led by researchers from Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was recently published in the journal, The Holocene. 

The researchers, in the study, have described two new species of stingless bees and explained that they most likely became extinct prior to their discovery. The bees were found in coastal forests, the study said.

Species Of Stingless Bees Discovered In One Of The World’s Most Threatened Ecosystems 

The forests of East Africa and the coastal forest of Madagascar are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world, where more than 90 per cent of the forest land has been clear-cut. 

In Madagascar, 241 kilohectares of trees were lost in 2020 alone. In a statement issued by the Senckenberg Research Institute and National History Museum in Frankfurt, Dr Mónica M. Solórzano Kraemer, the lead author of the study, said that the forests of East Africa and the coastal forest of Madagascar are still considered 'biodiversity hotspots'. She further said that their biodiversity was incomparably higher in the past, as learnt from insect inclusions in fossilised resins, among other things.

Researchers Examined Defaunation Resins And Copals

Solórzano Kraemer, together with a team from Spain, the United States of America, and Germany, examined several of the tree resins, called "defaunation resins", and copals. Defaunation resin is the resin produced after 1760 AD.

In the study, the researchers presented specimens of workers of stingless bees included in copal and defaunation resin, from the coastal vichaka forests in Tanzania, and from northwest Madagascar. 

How Old Are The Newly Discovered Species?

The researchers found inclusions of stingless bees, called Meliponini, inside the resins, the study said. The youngest species dated from 2015, while the oldest was about 3,000 years old. 

The researchers studied 36 specimens, among which they identified three species already known to science, as well as two undescribed species, namely, Axestotrigona kitingae sp. nov. and Hypotrigona kleineri sp. nov.

The three known species are Hypotrigona gribodoi, Liotrigona bouyssoui, and Liotrigona nilssoni, the study said. 

Solórzano Kraemer explained that today, East Africa and Eastern Madagascar are highly fragmented landscapes. Therefore, the researchers assume that the newly discovered species are already extinct at this time. She explained that Meliponini species are very sensitive to environmental changes, as these social, colony-dwelling bees depend on pollen, nectar, and resin from the surrounding flora. For this reason, as well as extensive anthropogenic habitat changes over the past 150 years throughout East Africa, it seems unlikely that these species are still surviving, she added.

A “Hidden Loss” Of Biodiversity

The researchers, in their study, refer to a "hidden loss" of biodiversity, which is the extinction of species before they could be discovered and described in their natural environment. Stingless bees from East Africa serve as an example of "hidden species loss". 

Solórzano Kraemer said that until now, science has been focused primarily on inclusions in amber. She explained that resin and copals preserve organisms in comparably good condition, making them important tools for tracking changes in faunal assemblages. 

Solórzano Kraemer concluded that they reveal what the insect world looked like before the beginning of the Anthropocene, the human-influenced age, and should therefore definitively receive greater attention. 

Amber is well known and studied, unlike the younger resins like Pleistocene copal, Holocene copal, or Defaunation resin, the authors noted in the study. However, the scientific relevance of these younger resins preserving arthropods that lived in before the Anthropocene is often underestimated. 

The researchers noted in the study that they can expect the new species to be already extinct because the coastal forests in the East Africa region and in East Madagascar are now highly fragmented.

The authors concluded that the study of inclusions in copal and defaunation resin can document losses of local biodiversity resulting from activities such as deforestation.