Yes, I saw that one. It was especially interesting to discover that while 9 day old honey bee adults have the full complement of gut microbiota, that larvae typically have NONE. Evidently, they have no need for them as their food is predigested. Further, it appears that the food is sterilized by the nurses to prevent pathogenic microbes (like AFB) from entering the larval gut. Honey bees add substances like hydrogen peroxide to the royal jelly to disinfect it, which would presumably account for the absence of beneficial microbes as well. Meanwhile, this paper just came out

Population genetics of beneficial heritable symbionts
John Jaenike, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA

> Most species of insects are infected with heritable, facultative symbionts. Such symbionts first appear within a host lineage as a result of lateral transfer from other host species. Although some facultative symbionts are reproductive parasites and thus adversely affect the transmission of host nuclear genes, there is growing evidence that many are beneficial to their hosts by, for example, conferring protection from natural enemies. The origin, spread, and maintenance of such symbionts bears many similarities to, as well as important differences from, the process of adaptive evolution by beneficial nuclear mutations. The time is ripe for the development of a coherent theory of the 'population genetics' of beneficial heritable symbionts.

* * *

The whole concept of inheritance has been turned on its head, now encompassing not only genetic inheritance, but the inheritance of a variety of substances -- organisms, as well as culturally transmitted information. All of this adds up to change over time leading to an increase in fitness (AKA evolution). 

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