The Opportunist, Pt. 3 - _TNY_4347
When I mention bees, many seem to think there are only honey bees, the social ones with a queen in a colony in a hive producing honey harvested by people in baggy white clothes and large hats with nets.
The same people, when hearing talk about saving the bees and that the diversity of species is threatened seem to imagine that we need to put up more hives with honey bees.
In reality, there are an incredible amount of different bees with quite varying behaviour. Just in Sweden, there are around 250 species of bees. And in North America, there are over 4000 species of bees - and the honey bee isn't one of them. All honey bees in Northa America are non-native and actually compete with the native ones.
Many bees like to dig burrows in sand and then collect pollen and store there together with an eggs in separate chambers which will hatch into larvae, eating that pollen storage and emerge as a bee, continuing the cycle.
Now nature wouldn't be nature if there wasn't something taking advantage of that and that is where this lady in bright colours come in.
It's a nomad bee (Nomada sp.) which is a kleptoparasite, also referred to as a cuckoo bee. They fly around just above the ground (quite wasp-like) searching for those burrows dug by other bees and deposit their own eggs. When they hatch, the larvae have special mandibles which they use to kill the host's offspring and then eat the stored pollen and complete their life cycle. I wasn't able to figure out which exact species, but Nigel Horsley chipped in and ID'ed this as a fork-jawed nomad bee (Nomada ruficornis) - Thanks Nigel!
I chased this specimen for quite some time outside my house while it only landed for really short stops before taking off again so I couldn't get close in time, but eventually I managed to get a couple of shots of her - and I think it was worth the effort.
Part 1 (a little closer) here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/49092929811/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/49998686448/
The Opportunist, Pt. 3 - _TNY_4347
When I mention bees, many seem to think there are only honey bees, the social ones with a queen in a colony in a hive producing honey harvested by people in baggy white clothes and large hats with nets.
The same people, when hearing talk about saving the bees and that the diversity of species is threatened seem to imagine that we need to put up more hives with honey bees.
In reality, there are an incredible amount of different bees with quite varying behaviour. Just in Sweden, there are around 250 species of bees. And in North America, there are over 4000 species of bees - and the honey bee isn't one of them. All honey bees in Northa America are non-native and actually compete with the native ones.
Many bees like to dig burrows in sand and then collect pollen and store there together with an eggs in separate chambers which will hatch into larvae, eating that pollen storage and emerge as a bee, continuing the cycle.
Now nature wouldn't be nature if there wasn't something taking advantage of that and that is where this lady in bright colours come in.
It's a nomad bee (Nomada sp.) which is a kleptoparasite, also referred to as a cuckoo bee. They fly around just above the ground (quite wasp-like) searching for those burrows dug by other bees and deposit their own eggs. When they hatch, the larvae have special mandibles which they use to kill the host's offspring and then eat the stored pollen and complete their life cycle. I wasn't able to figure out which exact species, but Nigel Horsley chipped in and ID'ed this as a fork-jawed nomad bee (Nomada ruficornis) - Thanks Nigel!
I chased this specimen for quite some time outside my house while it only landed for really short stops before taking off again so I couldn't get close in time, but eventually I managed to get a couple of shots of her - and I think it was worth the effort.
Part 1 (a little closer) here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/49092929811/
Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/49998686448/