Tag: solitary bee

• Hard life

  Some bee species can use many various plants as their pollen sources (but still, they can have preferences) but there are others which are more or less specialized. The pollen specialists use plants belonging to only one family, sometimes their diet is restricted to just a few genera or a few species. They can’t live in areas where their food plants are absent. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that pollen specialists are often rare or endangered.

  On the drawing you see a pair of Clarke’s mining bee, Andrena clarkella, which collects pollen exclusively from willows.

  

  March 22, 2024

  Andrena, bee, bees, insects, justyna kierat, nature, nonhoneybees, solitary bee, solitary bees, wild bees, wildbees

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• Too good job

  Some solitary bees leave their nests open when they go foraging, but others cover the entrance before leaving. Grey-backed mining bee, Andrena vaga, not only covers the nest but also sometimes digs a false nest entrance a few centimeters away and leaves it open. It is a way to deceive its nest parasites which would like to lay their eggs in her nest. Sometimes not only cuckoo bee is fooled by this false nest, but also the returning mining bee itself flies straight to it, before realizing its mistake. 

  

  June 8, 2023

  Andrena, bee, bees, insects, mining bee, nature, solitary bee, solitary bees, wild bees, wildbees

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