BOOK REVIEWS
The Tears of Re: Beekeeping
in Ancient Egypt
Gene Kritsky
2015; 160 pages, 103 plates
Oxford University Press, New York, NY
ISBN: 978-0-199-36138-0
$29.95 (hardcover)
According to a papyrus written around
300 BCE, the Egyptia n su n g o d Re
“wept and the tears
from his eyes fell
on the ground and
turned into a bee.”
This origin story sets
the scene for The Tears of Re, in which
author Gene Kritsky explores archaeological evidence of early beekeeping and
its place in Egyptian culture. Kritsky,
who received a Fulbright Scholar grant
to teach entomology at Minya University in Upper Egypt in the early 1980s,
has been smitten with both bees and
Egyptian history for years. In his newest book, he emphasizes the difference
between honey hunting and the birth
of beekeeping. Humans have harvested
honey for at least 8,000 years, robbing
combs from wild colonies, but the Egyptian civilization was the first to practice
large-scale, organized beekeeping.
The first known archaeological evidence of human-made beehives comes
from Egypt’s Old Kingdom, when pharaoh
Newoserre Any built his spectacular solar
temple in the 25th century BCE. On five
limestone blocks, together measuring only
two feet by six inches, artists etched and
painted four scenes of early beekeeping.
Sadly, the most tantalizing vignette, in
which a man kneels before nine horizontal
beehives, only partially survives. He holds
an oval object in one hand, cupping his
other hand over the opening that faces
the hives. Hieroglyphs label his actions
nft, translated as “to blow”; the root of
this word means “emitting a breath or
a little sound.” In Eva Crane’s The World
History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting
(1999), she describes the practice among
present-day, traditional Egyptian beekeepers of “calling” the queen during swarm
season, when colonies split to reproduce:
The beekeeper smoked the bees from
the front and “called” the bees several
times. The call, which was described
as kak, kak, or kak, kak, kaak, or ee,
ee, imitates a sound known as piping, made by young virgin queens…
Any virgin queens free in the hive
or still in their cells were likely to
reply to his “calling,” in which case
the beekeeper knew that the colony
would swarm unless he took action
(page 169).
If the solar-temple vignette depicts the
same process, Kritsky writes, “then this
technique of calling queens has been
practiced for over 4,500 years, and the
ancient Egyptians’ understanding of bee
behavior was much more advanced than
we might have guessed.”
Throughout his book, Kritsky details
what we can learn about ancient beekeeping from fragmentary archeological
evidence. He doesn’t explore the myths
and folklore captured in other texts such
Read more American Entomologist book reviews online at
http://ae.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/3
194
as The Sacred Bee, by Hilda Ransome,
but discusses information conveyed by
artifacts. They show, for example, that
the ancient Egyptians understood that
bees visited flowers. A partial relief in the
tomb of Ankhor depicts a man beckoning
the bees to come toward a large tree, perhaps the earliest recognition that honey
bees worked plants to produce honey.
The role of bees as pollinators was not
yet known, and the pollen transported
on the bee’s corbicula was believed to
be wax. The book addresses not only the
methods of ancient beekeeping, but also
the hierarchical organization of beekeepers, the use of hive products in medicine,
and other ramifications of apiculture in
Egyptian culture.
This subject matter will appeal to students, beekeepers interested in history,
and professors teaching the development
of apiculture, but readers should be prepared for the detailed, technical text. It
contains a timeline in the front, but the
many names and transitions between
ancient rulers were, at times, a bit bewildering. Deeper historical and cultural context in the text itself would have
been helpful to those who approach the
book with a passion for beekeeping, but
only superficial knowledge of the reign
of the pharaohs.
In reading The Tears of Re, I was
reminded of The Battle of the Books, a satire penned by Jonathan Swift in 1704. In it,
library books spring to life and spar about
whether modern science trumps ancient
wisdom. While the books are arguing, a
bee escapes from a spider’s web. In Swift’s
telling, the self-sufficient spider, with its
complicated but fragile web, represents
modern science. The bee, working cooperatively with her colony-mates to create “sweetness and light” from countless
American Entomologist • Fall 2016
flowers, represents the ancients and their
collective wisdom. Kritsky’s exploration of
beekeeping in ancient Egypt engages in a
similar collective investigation, where the
sum of the parts outweighs the individual components. Each relief he examines,
every beeswax statue or papyrus, adds a
small bit of wisdom that helps paint a
vivid picture. By slowing down and contemplating the rites of early beekeepers,
we gain increased appreciation for the
sweetness and light honey bees provided
our ancestors.
Today, Egyptian beekeepers are modernizing, adopting moveable frame hives.
The number of traditional mud hives,
estimated at 124,000 in 1994, dropped
precipitously to 7,700 by 2004. This
ancient form of beekeeping—practiced
since the pyramids first rose toward the
heavens—will soon disappear. Our bee,
ensnared in the spider’s web, may not
escape its fate this time, but we can enjoy
this record of her life that began when
the sun god cried.
Kirsten Traynor
Department of Entomology
University of Maryland, College Park
College Park, MD 202
[email protected]
DOI:
10.1093/ae/tmw069
Bark Beetles:
Biology and Ecology of
Native and Invasive Species
Fernando E. Vega and
Richard W. Hofstetter (eds.)
2015; 640 pages
Elsevier/Academic Press, London, UK
ISBN: 978-0-124-17156-5
Bark beetles exhibit
incredible diversity
and complexity in
their behavior, ecology, and population
dynamics. The vast
majority of the 6,000plus extant species
colonize dead or dying host plants, and
are important nutrient recyclers. Only
about 1% of species attack and kill healthy
hosts, but several of these are among the
most destructive tree pests on a global and
regional scale. Considering the diversity
and ecological success of bark beetles, it
appears that their transition, some 90–120
million years ago, from “life in the green”
196
to “life under bark” was a beneficial lifestyle change. Other key innovations in this
group include symbioses with microbes,
social behavior, and unusual reproductive strategies.
In Bark Beetles: Biology and Ecology of
Native and Invasive Species, 33 authors
contributed their expertise, resulting in
the first detailed and thorough synthesis of the biology, ecology, phylogeny,
and management of bark beetles from a
global perspective. Despite the multi-author format, continuity among writing
styles makes the book seamless to read
and the 15 chapters are arranged in a
logical order from fundamental concepts
to management strategies and impacts.
The book is particularly well timed due to
continued outbreaks of tree-killing bark
beetles, range expansions associated with
climate change, and proliferation of exotic
species in non-native habitats.
Bark beetle taxonomy originated with
Carl Linnaeus, who provided the first four
species descriptions in 1758—although he
grouped them with the dermestids. Bark
beetles are currently recognized as specialized members of the “true weevils” in
the subfamily Scolytinae. Many scolytine
species are ambrosia beetles that feed on
symbiotic fungi rather than host-plant
tissues; Bark Beetles appropriately handles the ambrosia beetles as an ecological guild and not a taxonomic designation, since their fungus-farming lifestyle
arose multiple times (about 40–60 million
years before humans began domesticating
plants for agriculture). Yes, fungus farming also originated once in ants and once
in termites, but ambrosia beetles hold
the distinction of multiple independent
origins. Many of the remaining bark beetles that are not fungus farmers still have
obligate associations with microbes. Bark
Beetles covers some key mechanisms,
and also emphasizes outstanding questions about the impact of these microbial symbionts on bark beetle biology
and population dynamics. The authors
also address contemporary alternatives
to classic paradigms on symbiont pathogenicity and host defenses. For instance,
fungal symbionts may not be required to
overwhelm the defenses of healthy trees,
as once proposed; instead, they may be
more important as a nutritional supplement for the beetles.
Perhaps the most impressive theme
evident throughout Bark Beetles is that the
diversity and complexity of bark beetle
biology and ecology arguably rivals that
of most other insects. While not particularly well known, higher forms of sociality
have evolved repeatedly in the Scolytinae, including gregariousness; parental care by the mother, father, or both;
and delayed dispersal of adult offspring
that aid in the care of younger siblings.
Most male insects leave immediately or
soon after copulation, but males of some
scolytine species exhibit prolonged residency and often remain around the gallery until oviposition ceases. (Would Sigmund Freud have been intrigued by the
millions of years of incestuous breeding
between brothers and sisters and, occasionally, mothers and sons?) As evident
in Bark Beetles, these and other biological complexities have resulted in several
species being used as model organisms
for diverse disciplines, including biological invasions, population dynamics,
disturbance ecology, chemical ecology,
microbial symbioses, social evolution,
and coevolution.
Outbreaks of tree-killing bark beetles in
North America and Europe are among the
most destructive forest disturbances, in
some cases outranking fires, hurricanes,
and tornadoes in their devastation. Some
species are even recognized as “landscape
engineers” due to their detrimental impact
on stand composition during outbreaks.
Warming climates have resulted in several
species expanding their ranges and exhibiting outbreaks in regions that previously
were too cold. The variable impact of climatic extremes on host tree susceptibility
is also considered in Bark Beetles. While
few bark beetles kill healthy trees, those
that do are some of the most destructive
pests of trees, including members of the
genera Dendroctonus, Ips, Tomicus, and
Scolytus that are specifically highlighted
in several chapters. Destructive pests of
horticultural trees, such as the coffee berry
borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari), are
also individually addressed. Bark Beetles
also covers the diverse interactions that
drive bark beetle abundance—from symbiotic microbes to predators, parasitoids,
and varied host resistance mechanisms.
The book does a fine job synthesizing
decades of research on the mechanisms
of bark beetle outbreaks, but recognizes
that their population dynamics are notoriously complex and outbreaks are difficult to predict. Challenges still lie ahead,
particularly as a result of climate change
and range expansion.
American Entomologist • Fall 2016