Non-honey bees

Twisted-wing insects (Strepsiptera) are extraordinary parasites. They parasitise various other insects, bees among them. Because Strepsiptera parasitising bees belong to Stylopidae family, affected bees are called ‘stylopised’. The parasite has an extraordinary life cycle. The female spends her whole life inside the host’s abdomen, with only her head sticking out from between tergites. Male lives the same way only up to pupation, and adult males are extremely short-lived: they die after a few hours. They have one pair of fan-shaped wings.

The parasite causes extensive changes in the host’s appearance and behaviour. Stylopized bees don’t reproduce, and they look as intersexes (males acquire some female morphological traits, and vice versa), which makes them harder for entomologists to identify to the species level.

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!