Cuckoos and Cuckoo Bees
By
Stella M. Turk MBE
In some species, parenting
Is demandingly unrelenting,
But others manage to deceive
And so are able to receive
The hard-won articles of food
Gathered for the rightful brood.
Are such creatures lazy ‘bugs’
Or very enterprising thugs?
Should we use a moral code
To judge those in Darwinian mode
Authors notes
Cuckoo-bees, like Cuckoos, destroy the eggs of the host, replacing them with their own.
These are only two of the many such instances. Animals and plants have no rues of warfare or compunction about deception and cheating.
Stella M Turk MBE
4th August 2008