Human beings are a cancer upon the planet, and have removed themselves as a practical aspect of the host. They are above following the rules that every other organism abides by. They will not be eaten, they will not permit the weak to be weeded out, and they will not allow the species to better itself. There is no give and take. We want it all, we want it now, we want more, we want it exactly they way we want it, and there is no excuse that the earth can provide which will sedate our petulant demands.
Dawson’s burrowing bees follow their seemingly meaningless cycle and they do it just for the sake of the living. Hatched males emerge from underground chambers where the females remain for slightly longer. Once the first females have started appearing, the males (hours old) proceed to slaughter each other with such gusto, that not a single one survives. Eventually, fatally, and perhaps accidentally, the female’s eggs are fertilized in the midst of the genocide. The successful fertilization makes the whole affair perfectly justifiable.
This results in an all-female world, and they prepare to set up the next generation underground, where, upon hatching, the males will be dead within hours- just like their fathers before them. So pointless and brief, but that is what it is. Dawson’s burrowing bees fit into the bigger scheme as a food source, as a pollinator, as a predictability that the ecosystem comes to rely on. Perhaps the blueprint for their existence does not seem terribly enjoyable, but it give them a purpose in the natural world.
