#cuckoo bees

[razehider]

it's a commonly accepted fact that animals are, on the whole, cuter when sleeping. in the case of bees, they're also not bastards when sleeping, so i could get as close to this cloak and dagger cuckoo bee (Thyreus sp.) as i wanted. although my presence was unnoticed or at least deemed unimportant, it did briefly buzz when i grabbed the plant and i could feel the vibrations while holding the stem, which was neat

i don't think there was an angle of this thing i didn't photograph at the time, knowing full well all the angles in the world still wouldn't help me identify it to species. but look at its stupid eyes

(August 6th, 2025)

[ratbugs]

unfathomably obsessed with these lovely little cuckoo bees from the genus neolarra

fuzziest of all time (as usual thank you so much to the amazing photographers of inaturalist)

the most precious little fairies

inat links 🔗 under the cut:

Genus Neolarra

Neolarra from Chicago Valley Rd on April 30, 2016 by knoble. Sphecodes?

Neolarra vigilans

Neolarra vigilans from Cottage Grove, MN, USA on July 20, 2025 by Zach Portman

Neolarra vigilans

Neolarra vigilans from Cottage Grove, MN, US on July 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM by Michelle Orcutt. cuckoo and cuckold

Neolarra vigilans

Neolarra vigilans from Cottage Grove, MN, USA on July 24, 2025 at 10:47 AM by Heather Holm

Genus Neolarra

Neolarra from Grand County, UT, USA on May 8, 2021 at 06:13 PM by ingridcarmean

[colorsoutofearth]

Nomad bee (Nomada flava) feeding on Forget-me-not

Photo by Ammonite

[celestialmacros]

Calliopsis Cuckoo Nomad Bee (Holcopasites calliopsidis)

July 25, 2020

Southeastern Pennsylvania

Found in my yard on my Black-Eyed Susans

[natureisthegreatestartist]

What in the world are these insects? They are cuckoo bees that are native to Australia. Buzzy little cuties, right?

[bolaneno]

Native cuckoo bees (Triepeolus distinctus) visited my native clasping coneflowers🌻🐝

[fantasticwolfpenguin]

Kleptoparasitic insects my beloved. I’ve always wanted to study them I just don’t know what I would write. I love the little dung beetles that steal others’ dung balls, little flies that steal meals, and little bees that lay eggs in other nests. Maybe ‘tis I am the kleptomaniac.

[7-percent]

Bumblebees with a dark secret

Meet the Vestal Cuckoo bumblebee. Looks like a lot of other bumblebees, but this one is wearing a DISGUISE! It is in fact a bee that waits until a queen bumblebee is out foraging, then arrives at the nest, EATS the larvae and then lays her own eggs in there. 

She then buggers off and leaves the eggs to be looked after by the owner of the nest. Cuckoo bees drink nectar from flowers, and the females eat pollen to help develop their ovaries. However, being cleptoparasitic means the hard work ends there and they don’t collect pollen to take back to the nest. This is left completely up to the host workers. The cuckoo bee larvae themselves eat any existing pollen balls left for the host larvae, as well as new pollen stocks brought to them by the host workers. If the female cuckoo bee hasn’t already done so, the cuckoo larvae will kill and eat the host larvae, too.

How do you tell a cuckoo bumblebee from the real thing? It’s hard because they’ve evolved to look like the host bumblebee. Generally speaking, if you see a bumble with NO pollen sacs, and darker wings, and a little less hairy, it’s probably a cuckoo.