#macropis

[maddascanbe-blog]

Bee Nino! Beeno?

Fun fact, Nino is the hardest character for me to draw. He just doesn't look like Nino to me, and it doesn't help I really struggle with hats.

Miss Bustier still asked him to move to the front of the class, but without Adrien to pull him out of his shell, Nino stayed very morose. Until Alya switched to sit beside him to get away from Blake, who she can't stand.

After this Nino begins to warm up to both her and the bulk of the class. He even works up the courage to ask them to help him film a short horror film for a contest. The problem being that Chloe and Blake are absolute menaces during the filming. With Chloe (pre-character growth) making fun of her acting abilities, and Blake suggesting she won't make it far in life if she intends to jump at her own shadow.

This severely hurts Mylene's confidence and results in her quitting, both the project and acting for a while.

Nino is so upset by his first real project going so poorly he get's akumatized into Frightmaster. He tells Chloe and Blake they will be taking Mylene's place as the hapless hero, but this time the frights will be very real. As the school turns into a soundstage.

They're able to defeat him with the aid of Thalia, who points out that as scary as Frightmaster's monsters are, it's all just for show.

After this Alya gives the terrible twosome an absolute reaming for ruining Nino's show instead of say- leaving? No one asked them to come. They still don't finish the show in time for the contest but don't feel too bad for Nino. Mylene will decide to get back up on the acting horse some day, and once Zoe get's here he'll have two very excited actresses to help him. And his scary girlfriend to keep the peanut gallery in line.

He starts spending a large amount of his time at the Cesaire's, with Chris along with him. He gets roped into playing Freestyle Clash 2 so much he's basically an expert. So he's the perfect choice for a heavy hitting miraculous to take out Frightengale without getting frozen himself.

I'm thinking eventually Alya reveals her secret identity to him, but probably not until close to the end game.

[usgsbiml]

Macropis ciliata - Now rare species that uses the oils of Lysimachia flowers. This male from Bath, Virginia, collected probably by Ellison Orcutt

[regnum-plantae]

Lysimachia punctata, Primulaceae

The bright, showy flower spikes of the dotted loosestrife surely stand out on a grey day, but have only relatively recently started popping up in the natural landscape of the British Isles, having been present for less than a few decades in most areas. Originally introduced from South-Eastern Europe, Western Asia and the Caucasus, this vigorous species became a common element in cottage gardens in the second part of the XVII century, when it was also popular as a long-lasting cut flower, but as it propagates mostly vegetatively through short rhizomes and sexually only if grown in ideal conditions, it took it a while to reach the wilderness and can now be encountered generally as small colonies in proximity of urban areas or streams, at least here in Scotland. If grown in full sun in rich, humid soil it should be divided each year to prevent it from forming very large clumps. 

Lysimachia species are notable for producing oils rather than nectar (the species name, punctata, refers to the oil glands, small dark dots on the inferior page of the leaves), which attract specialised oil-collecting bees of the genus Macropis. As M. nuda is native to the US and M. fulvipes seems to roam the native area of this plant and Europe, reaching only Southern England, I’m unsure regarding natural, frequent pollinators up here in Scotland. 

[usgsbiml]

Epeoloides - Macropis hunting continental twins.  Here is E. coecutiens from the Netherlands.  In North America we have E. pilosulus.  Both species rare (and very small), both nest invaders of Macropis oil collecting bees. Photo license: CC-BY-SA. This photo can be reused as you wish. When doing so, please credit the creator (USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab) and the source (Naturalis Biodiversity Center) and adaptations must be shared under the same terms.

[indefenseofplants]

On Native Loosestrife and Oil Bees

Oil bees? What the heck is an oil bee? Those were my first thoughts when I heard of them for the first time. There are something like 320 species of oil bee in this world and they have very interesting ecologies. These solitary insects seek out certain flowers that produce special oils that the bees mix with pollen to feed their developing young. Some even go as far as to use the oils to line their nests.  Surely these bees must be tropical. I really couldn't imagine this interaction going on up here in the temperate zones. You can imagine my surprise then when I found that there are oil bees and the plants they require haunting some of my favorite hiking spots. As it turns out, the genus Lysimachia is comprised of many different flowering plant species that produce these oils.  What's more, the bees that utilize them are quite specialized. They all hail from the same genus - Macropis. These bees dig their nests into the ground. Using their highly tuned senses, these little solitary oil bees search far and wide for species of loosestrife that can provide the oils they need. The whorled loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) is one such species. If you look closely, you can see that the inside of the flowers are streaked with dark resin canals.  Luckily for the oil bees, this species seems to be quite adaptable as far as habitat goes. I see it most often lining trails and service roads. Mature plants create quite the spectacle with their tall stature, whorled leaves, and sprays of yellow flowers. I will have to pay close attention to these blooms over the next couple of weeks in hopes of seeing the oil bees that share such a close relationship with it.  Further Reading: http://bit.ly/28K9k8d http://bit.ly/28Ks2vV