Data and code from: Structural colour in bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) is linked to climate and latitude
Data files
Sep 21, 2026 version files 184.68 MB
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bee_f_size.csv
19.53 KB
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BEE_mat7_IQTufbs_tplo_1001bin.nwk
184.34 MB
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env_data.csv
276.97 KB
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README.md
2.29 KB
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Structural_colour_in_bees_(Hymenoptera_Anthophila)_is_linked_to_climate_and_latitude.Rmd
39.27 KB
Abstract
Environmental drivers frequently predict global patterns of colour diversity, but whether such patterns depend on the underlying colour mechanisms – pigments or microscopic structures – has scarcely been considered. Structural colour may have different functional properties that result in different associations with environmental variables. Here we test whether the presence of structural colour is linked with environmental variables that reflect potential thermoregulatory and water repellent properties. The study location was global. The major taxa studied were Bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila). We scored the presence of structural colour and extracted climate data for 1,784 bee species. We used phylogenetic generalised linear mixed models to control for phylogenetic relatedness and tested whether environmental variables, related to temperature and humidity, explain the presence of structural colour. A higher proportion of tropical species had structural colour, despite the higher species richness of bees at higher latitudes. Structural colouration was more likely to occur in cool, sunny environments, in which it is expected to provide the greatest thermal benefit. Structural colour was also more prevalent in environments with higher annual precipitation. These ecogeographic patterns were independent of body size. Our study reveals global ecogeographic patterns of structural colouration in bees, consistent with thermoregulatory and potentially water repellence functions. In addition, our findings highlight that structural colours probably have multiple coexisting functions, including both visual and non-visual functions, that need to be disentangled to understand global patterns of colour diversity.
Files and descriptions
File: Structural_colour_in_bees_(Hymenoptera_Anthophila)_is_linked_to_climate_and_latitude.Rmd
Description: R Markdown file with code used to perform all analyses and data processing in this study, implemented in R.
File: env_data.csv
Description: data collected to test if environmental variables are linked to the presence of structural colour
- species: bee species name
- f_body_size_mm: female body size (total length from the head to end of the final tergite) in millimetres
- m_body_size_mm: male body size (total length from the head to end of the final tergite) in millimetres
- f_struc_present:female structural colour presence (whether structural colour was present or not)
- m_struc_present: male structural colour presence (whether structural colour was present or not)
- struc_present: structural colour presence (whether structural colour was present or not)
- mean_vapr: mean water vapour pressure (kPa)
- annualpp_data: mean annual precipitation (mm)
- ppseason_data: precipitation seasonality (%)
- mean_ai: aridity index (ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration)
- mean_annualt_data: mean annual temperature (°C)
- mean_tmin: minimum annual temperature (°C)
- mean_tmax: maximum annual temperature (°C)
- mean_srad: solar irradiance (kJ m -2 day -1)
- mean_dayrange: mean diurnal range (°C)
- median_latitude: median latitude (°)
NA values indicate data that could not be found on a given species.
File: bee_f_size.csv
Description: data collected to test whether body size could predict the presence of structural colour separately and when interacting with temperature
Column headers:
- species: bee species name
- f_body_size_mm: female body size (total length from the head to end of the final tergite) in millimetres
- struc_present: structural colour presence (whether structural colour was present or not)
File: BEE_mat7_IQTufbs_tplo_1001bin.nwk
Description: The all 4,586 bee species chronogram tree plus 1,000 bootstrap samples trees used in the analyses. First tree in the file is the maximum likelihood version. Tree set is also available online at beetreeoflife.org.