Busted, Pt. 2 - _TNY_8822
Blood bees (Sphecodes sp.) like this one are cleptoparasites which take advantage of the work of other solitary bees and when nobody's looking, sneak down into the burrow and lay their own egg there and the resulting larvae will kill the host egg/larvae and use the pollen which the host mother have stored there for its own offspring.
I saw this one disappear down a hole near Stensjödal in Tyresta National Park and set up my camera for when it came up to the surface again.
The different species of blood bees look quite similar and are hard to distinguish. They target different species of bees though so if you know which species the host is you can probably figure out which blood bee is parasitizing on it.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50471472023/
Busted, Pt. 2 - _TNY_8822
Blood bees (Sphecodes sp.) like this one are cleptoparasites which take advantage of the work of other solitary bees and when nobody's looking, sneak down into the burrow and lay their own egg there and the resulting larvae will kill the host egg/larvae and use the pollen which the host mother have stored there for its own offspring.
I saw this one disappear down a hole near Stensjödal in Tyresta National Park and set up my camera for when it came up to the surface again.
The different species of blood bees look quite similar and are hard to distinguish. They target different species of bees though so if you know which species the host is you can probably figure out which blood bee is parasitizing on it.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/50471472023/