#kleptoparasite

[onenicebugperday]

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

Found in Asia, this species is a kleptoparasite of other bees, primarily those in the genus Amegilla.

Photos 1-2 by usaviah, 3 by harumkoh, and 4-5 by m_sato

[pogomcl]

Gasteruption jaculator Canon 7D Sigma 105 2.8 f/4.5 1/320 iso: 200 Srbsko, Czech Republic 7/23/2023

[neanderthalfakemon]

#058 - Shrikedown

#059 - Condorime

[revretch]

While we were in the Everglades, Jonathan and I made a find that I'm really excited about--two finds, in fact!

The first is the digger wasp (not sure of the species). She's interesting enough, a parasitoid that lays her eggs on a still-living spider or insect she's paralyzed so her young can devour the victim when they hatch. Notice the burrow she's carefully dug out, and hauls a piece of gravel over to for a door. She's got a victim in there with her eggs now. ...Maybe. See, the digger wasp digs lots of burrows (you can see her going off to tend another at the end), and most of them are empty.

Do you see the little fly in this video? She's off to the left in the beginning, and the camera focuses on her at the end.

Watch the little fly. Notice how the entire time, she keeps a safe distance, but is watching the wasp like a hawk.

That fly is what's called a kleptoparasite (think this one is a member of the subfamily Miltogramminae), and insects like her are the very reason the wasp has made so many fake burrows. Kleptoparasites like this fly wait for the wasp to leave the burrow unattended, then zip in and lay their own eggs to eat the paralyzed victim before the wasp's young can. The digger wasp is hoping that, by making enough burrows, she can confuse the fly into laying her eggs in a burrow that's empty.

My money's on the fly this time, though. She seems pretty sharp.

Incidentally, Maya the Bee actually did an episode about this very thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLzjnoN8h_w

Paper about the digger wasps and kleptoparasitic flies here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00299384

[seanpgilroy]

A dewdrop spider (Argyrodes elevatus) that had built its web off of that of a very large Argiope aurantia. Host/parasite dynamics with dewdrop spiders can vary widely depending upon the size difference, but in this case, I suspect it's primarily stealing prey too small for its host to bother with.

[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.

[agithaaesthetic-blog]

"And so the authors suggest that they are what’s called KLEPTOPARASITES (a great word-really!). In other words, they take food directly away from the jellyfish out of the mouth or the oral arms, stealing or scavenging food from the jellyfish which are known as big pelagic predators.. What would be called “indirect food sources”…

There are several reports of other brittle stars that practice “kleptoparasitc” behavior.. i.e. moving down into the feeding arms or near the mouth and stealing food directly from the host. Some of it might not be a big deal to the host.. scraps and etc.. but meaningful to the ophiuroids.."

[bowelfly]

please observe the handsome pet taking a nap on our fennel Triepeolus sp.