Non-honey bees

Would you like to have a cuckoo clock like this?

The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is well known for its distinctive call, and for the fact that females don’t build their own nests but lay eggs in the nests of other bird species. Since the 17th century, little figurines of cuckoos have been placed in a special type of clock. At every full hour the bird pops out of a cuckoo clock, and the number of its calls indicates the time.

What does this have to do with bees? There is a group of species whose reproductive strategy is almost exactly the same. They are called parasitic bees or cuckoo bees. In most species, the female sneaks into the nest of her host (another bee species) and lays her eggs there. Some species, like cuckoo bumblebees, invade a colony of the host and replace the queen in her function. About 25% of bee species in Poland are cuckoos, and I’m very fond of them. They have cool strategies that help them to get into the host’s nest and hide their eggs, and often don’t resemble a popular image of a bee at all. In the cartoon you see a Nomada. Members of this genus have little hair and vivid colours, and resemble wasps.

This cartoon was inspired by a conversation with a friend who prefers to stay anonymous (thank you! 😉 ).

This post was published on Instagram in cooperation with The Pollinator Academy. I’m happy to be involved in this initiative. If you are interested to learn about European pollinator species, in particular bees, hoverflies and butterflies, and recognizing them, check out the PA website!