Non-honey bees

Parasitic bees are known as ‘cuckoos’ because they do not build nests or care for their offspring. Most of them sneak into the nests of other bee species when the owner bee is out collecting food, or open nests that have already been closed and are unguarded, and lay their own eggs there. With solitary bees, it is quite easy to find a moment when the mother is away. In colonies of social species, however, there is usually somebody home. Cuckoo bumblebees solve this problem by fighting and replacing the queen, making them more social parasites than classic “cuckoos”. Blood bees (genus Sphecodes) have another strategy that is even crueller, which Danforth and co-authors refer to as the “scorched earth attack” in their book The Solitary Bees. The female Sphecodes enters the nest of a social or communal host and kills or repels (probably using pheromones) as many bees as possible. Once the colony has been destroyed, the female blood bee can parasitise the brood cells undisturbed.