Cuckoo Wasps and Carpenter Bees

Probably the most commonly observed insect group in my backyard (at least observed with my camera) is the Order Hymenoptera (the Bees, Wasps, Ants, and Sawflies). Partly this is because they are one of my favourite groups, and partly it’s because they make good subjects for photography, what with the bees and wasps having a tendency to land and sit still (momentarily) on colourful flowers. These are some of the pollinator visits I’ve captured this month: 

This next backyard visitor looks like another Hymenopteran, but is actually a convincing Bumblebee Mimic, a Robber Fly Laphria thoracica pretending to be a Bumblebee. This mating pair zipped through the garden up into a tree, so I had to use the telephoto lens rather than attempting a macro shot.

Not all Hymenoptera were zipping through the garden from flower to flower. Some were setting up their homes there. One such home was the thriving Pavement Ant (Tetramorium immigrans) colony under a large rock in the middle of our flowerbed. Whenever the rock is lifted, the exposed larvae are whisked away by frantic workers. The flurry of activity is like a living explosion of insects when the colony is uncovered.

The other fascinating Hymenopteran homebuilding was the infiltration of leftover dried stems by Small Carpenter Bees (Ceratina). I watched one digging into the middle of the stems and was able to get some decent pictures of the process. Unlike the Ants, these Bees don’t work together in a colony, each female constructs her own nest and provisions it with pollen. Despite this lack of cooperation, there is parental care within the Genus. Ceratina females guard their developing young by waiting at the nest entrance and will even open up sealed nest chambers to check on them (Wilson and Carril, 2016). Looks like I’m going to have to take a second look at those stems…

References:

Wilson, Joseph S. and Carril, Olivia. The Bees In Your Backyard. 2016.

For other June 2021 Observations, see:

–Flies Falling to Fungi and Other Dipteran Observations

–Fuzzy Flies and Song Sparrows

–The Wonders of Wrens

–A Visit to Big Creek, Part 1

–A Visit to Big Creek, Part 2

And for other posts focused on Hymenopterans, see:

–The Sand Wasps, Part 1: Introduction

–The Sand Wasps, Part 2: The Tribe Alyssontini

–The Social Biology of Wasps (Book Review)

–Species Profile: Introduced Pine Sawfly\

For more nature observations, photos and natural history facts, follow me on instagram at norfolknaturalist.