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Psyche 
[March 
the explanation that the insect pollinators so important to their 
success were pre-adapted as pollination vectors. It is interesting to 
note at this point that bees have been observed foraging on conifer 
pollen in areas where other food resources are scarce. Ray Angelo 
(personal communication, May, 1978) reports observing Colletes 
sp. foraging in high numbers on Juniperus virginiana pollen cones. 
This is noteworthy in two respects: 1) this conifer is the only readily 
available pollen source in the particular habitat where observations 
took place (Concord, Mass.), and 2) the bees foraging on the tree 
are members of the primitive bee family Colletidae. This suggests 
that they are generalized enough to have retained the ability to 
forage on gymnosperm pollen. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that 
bees evolved before the advent of the angiosperms is highly 
speculative, and remains a difficult theory to prove. The possibility 
of a pre-angiosperm origin for the bees implies that the Apoidea, 
and possibly sociality in the Apoidea, may be older than indicated 
by the fossil record. An inherent problem, of course, is whether or 
not these early bees would be recognizable as such, or would be 
mistaken for sphecid wasps. The discovery of additional Cretaceous 
amber might well provide valuable insight into this problem. 
SUMMARY 
Wheeler writes in his 1928 book, “from the lowest to the highest 
forms in the series, all animals are at some time in their lives 
immersed in some society.” It is the elaboration or evolution of 
these habits that leads to the eusocial behavior found in the Isoptera 
and certain groups of the Hymenoptera. The preceding account has 
examined insect sociality from a paleontological perspective in the 
hope that it will provide insight into the antiquity of this behavioral 
phenomenon. In addition, it has provided information on certain 
aspects of the evolution of the four major groups of social insects. 
The Isoptera are highly eusocial at the ordinal level and evidence 
suggests an ancient origin for the group. The oldest fossil termite 
known is from a Late Cretaceous deposit in Canada. The presence 
of a distinct humeral suture at the wing base indicates that social 
behavior was developed in the Isoptera at this time. It is further- 
more presumed that the termites arose in the early Mesozoic or 
possibly earlier, and from “protoblattoid” or blattoid stock. The 
hypogaeic lifestyle of most termites is not conducive to their 
