#cleptoparasite

[onenicebugperday]

Decorated cloak-and-dagger bee, Thyreus decorus, Apinae

Species in the genus Thyreus are cleptoparasitic cuckoo bees, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other bees. Once it hatches, the larva will eat food stores meant for the host larva, and sometimes the host larva itself. Found in Asia.

Photos 1-7 by homemountain, 8 by ming_de, and 9-10 by harumkoh

[usgsbiml]

Go to Boston.   

Go the harbor.  

There in the harbor are a string of islands, very used and usually very small. 

They have been made into a National Recreation Area, good, but not the Great Wilderness that would attract a lot of Thoreaus.  But yet, there are plenty of bees out there and here is one.

This one is Triepeolus pectoralis, looking verrrrryyy Goth (enough of those prissy shiny metallic bees).  It lays its eggs in the nests of Melissodes (also very Goth, since it ends up killing the Melissodes babies).  Photo by Kamren Jefferson.

[usgsbiml]

Epiclopis gayi - a cleptoparasitic bee (a.k.a nest parasite or cuckoo bee) of almost certainly Centris bees.  

Perhaps even of the Centris bee that was posted just prior to this as this bee was also collected in southern Chile on the expedition with Laurence Packer.  Photos by Kelly Graniger and Anders Croft.

[usgsbiml]

Oh look, another Triepeolus.  In this case it is T. helianthi from West Virginia from Kanawha County.  Most likely this was collected by the fabulous Jane Whitaker, who covered most of the state in her collecting adventures.  A fabulous contribution in an unexplored beescape.  Where are the people now who could explore West Virginia bees?  Photo by Sara Guerrieri.

All original pictures completely public domain and available at our Flickr site:https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/

Photography Information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

Follow us on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/usgsbiml/

sam droege, bee servant

[usgsbiml]

Spined Goth, (Aglaoapis tridentata)specimen collected by Heinrich Friese in Austria.

There are but three species of Goths, oddly scattered across the northern Old World with the Spined Goth occurring across the temperate regions, one in India, and one way down in South Africa.  Perhaps their empire was once larger and intermediate populations and species have disappeared or...we just haven’t looked hard enough.

This is another cleptoparasite, it has lost all its pollen collecting hairs and has become an invader of other species nests.  The Spined Goth is known to take over the nesting cells of bees in the Hoplitis and Megachile groups and appears to be not very choosy about its hosts other than perhaps sticking with bees in its same family (Megachilidae).   One last odd thing about this bee is that it is one of a small number of bee species that has completely lost its sting.  One would think that a species that invades another species nest would want such a weapon, but in this case some other cleverness must allow it to lay its eggs without conflict.

All original pictures completely public domain and available at our Flickr site:https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/

Photography Information:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

Follow us on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/usgsbiml/

sam droege

[sdnativebees]

Xeromelecta larreae

(By K. James Hung)

Spring has arrived in San Diego again! As native bees emerge from their natal nests underground or in wood stems, I, too, shall emerge from my long writing hiatus and begin photographing and writing about bees again. Rain is hitting San DiegoCounty hard as I write, and for the first time since I began my workdocumenting the diversity of bees in the county, we may have a productivespring with lots of flowers in both the mountains and deserts. 

The photo above is a cleptoparasitic bee (i.e., cuckoo bee), Xeromelecta larreae. In our deserts, it can be easily recognized by the reddish to yellow thorax, nearly all black abdomen, very dark wings, and a somewhat lazy, slow flight. Like other cleptoparasitic species, the females do not collect pollen, but find nests of other bee species (their “hosts”) and lay their eggs on the pollen balls therein. Historical records that I could find seem to indicate that this species is primarily active in April; thus my seeing this species at the end of February this year may be caused by the strange climate pattern this year (early rains, and then a period of hot, dry weather). But then again, it seems like there’s no such thing as “strange” or “typical” climate patterns for Southern California anymore these days. 

Finding and infiltrating the nests of other bee species is probably risky for these parasites, who may be attacked and vehemently ejected by their hosts should they be discovered. An encounter with an angry host (likely a digger bee in the genus Anthophora) is perhaps the reason that the bee photographed above is missing her antennae (that’s why she looks so odd). Many cleptoparasitic species have adapted specialized morphological structures to aid in just such situations; I look forward to discussing some of these adaptations in another post in the near future :).

[sdnativebees]

Leiopodus singularis

(By K. James Hung)

About a month ago, I had the pleasure of leading a small team of undergraduates to survey bees during what will hopefully become the annual Bioblitz at the Lake Hodges trails in Escondido/Rancho Bernardo, CA. Even though the weather was very suboptimal for bee activity (it was overcast and even rained at one point), we did find a highly noteworthy bee species: the chimney-bee-cuckoo, Leiopodus singularis.

Huge thanks to botanist and photographer, Dale Hameister, for taking the above photo of this male Leiopodus I found foraging on mustard blossoms. As far as I’m aware, this is the only photo of a properly identified, non-preserved male Leiopodus on the internet. Way to go, Dale! As its species epithet suggests, this is a singular, lonely bee. This is the only member of its genus found in North America; all the other Leiopodus species are in Central and South America. Leiopodus is the only genus in the bee tribe Protepeolini.

The above photo is, to my knowledge, the only photo of a properly identified, non-preserved female Leiopodus on the internet. I took this photo at Mission Trails Regional Park, which has some of the nicest coastal sage scrub ecosystems I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend going on a hike there in the spring!!

Even though this is a rather widespread bee species (it’s found in all four US states bordering Mexico, south through Guatemala), it appears to be locally quite uncommon. This bee is a cleptoparasite of the mallow-loving Diadasia species (such as, potentially, the aforementioned Diadasia nitidifrons), and thus I have only seen it in places where chaparral bush mallows (Malacothamnus fasciculatus) occur. I think the fact that Dale and I have taken such rare live photos of this bee species really highlights how much science still needs to be done to document the diversity and distribution of bees, even in pretty familiar localities like San Diego. I mean, scientists have discovered new bee species even in the heart of New York City!!

[sdnativebees]

Stelis laticincta

(By K. James Hung)

Today we feature our first cleptoparasitic bee. This long jargony word is used to describe the cuckoo bird-like behavior of many distinct bee lineages in which females, instead of constructing their own nests and collecting their own pollen, lay their eggs inside the nest of a different pollen-collecting bee species. How does this differ from simply being a parasite? The distinction is that the cleptoparasite larvae, instead of deriving nutrition primarily from consuming their host (the bee larva itself), consumes the host's food (the pollen ball). More on the natural history of cleptoparasites in a future post :-)

The bee photographed here, Stelis laticincta, is a cuckoo resin bee--its host is a resin bee in the subgenus Chelostomoides of the leafcutter genus Megachile. I was prickled quite hard all over by stinging nettle in my attempt to capture this photo, but I think overall it was worth my effort. This bee species appears restricted to the pacific region of southern USA. Its name, laticincta, means "wide-belted," referring to the broad black and yellow stripes formed by the bee's exoskeleton. In other members of the genus Stelis (all cleptoparasitic bees), these stripes can take many different forms, or be absent altogether.