the niche that bees occupy entails exploitation of the excess energy from flowers in order for bees to exist

Right, I would probably avoid the word "exploitation" if the one being "exploited" isn't actually losing anything. Flowers benefit from bees and bees benefit from flowers.

human society specialized into classes and the mechanism by which the owning class maintains its existence is by exploitation of the abundance of commodities produced by the working class.

I would say it is only exploitation if the commodities are coerced out of the working class instead of freely given.

If the working class did not produce a surplus, or if it suddenly stopped producing a surplus the owning class would cease to exist.

What if, hypothetically, the owning class used their vast resources to replace the working class. Then the owning class owns the automated workers and all production, not just surplus.

That depends on whether you think capitalism can exist without an owning class that does not work.

Theoretically it can. But maybe not realistically, I don't know.

Once you have the concept of surplus and combine it with private property, you have the ability for private persons to accumulate surplus and cease to work. If you eliminate the right to private property, I would think most theorists would agree, you no longer have capitalism.

I think this is a good point. Capital only makes sense if the system permits investing in and reaping rewards for work you yourself do not perform.

With that surplus appropriated, you then need a central planning function to determine how to redistribute it. I think you immediately leave capitalism as soon as you suggest this.

Good point.

Even if indigenous forms of communism existed, it would be inaccurate to say that the Russian revolution was a part of that historical process. The ideas transferred and produced a new instance of the phenomenon, but they do not share a continuity in the same way that Dutch and American capitalism share a continuity.

I agree, although I would probably also agree if someone said "communalism has come and gone throughout history. Here is how it found resurgence in Russia."

Because if the ideas transferred, then clearly there is some sort of continuity at play here.

Yes. Everything is connected. Nature doesn't provide neat lines for us to categorize things between. We do our best, but it's never perfect. Useful, though!

Thank you again for your in-depth responses. Mt main takeaways are that labels can be reductive and misleading, capitalism on Earth has always been racist, and reasonable cooperation has always been part of human history. I hope it is also part of human future.