Question
Hello,
I heard about your site in German TV and so I remembered a photo I’d taken in 2006 in Sweden. That little bug is "torturing" a bumble-bee by pinching its proboscis. Can you tell me what ’s happening there? Kind regards
H.Koslowski
Hi H,
You are the second letter we received today that mentioned seeing our site on television. Our first job is to identify your beetle. This appears to be a Flea Beetle in the tribe Alticini, but we would like verification. Hopefully, Eric Eaton can substantiate that. This diminutive beetle cannot possibly think the bee is food, but it might be hitching a ride, a phenomenon known as Phoresy. We hope to get clarification on that from Eric Eaton as well.
Hi, Daniel:
That is a really remarkable shot of the beetle clamped onto the bumble bee! It is not a flea beetle, or any other type of Chrysomelidae leaf beetle as far as I can tell (flea beetles get their name from their ability to jump, not because they are parasitic). I suspect it is some kind of sap beetle (family Nitidulidae), some of which can be abundant inside flowers.
Eric
Update: (02/08/2008)
Hello Daniel,
I think I have a proper guess what sort of a beetle this might be! It belongs to the genus Antherophagus (fam. Cryptophagidae, silken fungus beetles), which has three species in Sweden, all developing in nests of bumble bees. I think this one is A. pallens (Linnaeus, 1758) (~4 mm), which is the most common species of the genus. All species visit flowers to clamp onto bumble bees to hitch a ride and infest their nests. But the larvae are supposed to be harmless to their hosts, feeding on the bees’ faeces. So this is a perfect example of a picture showing the start of a Phoresy! Best,
Bengt Andersson Sweden
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Posted 01 February 2008
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Identify Lasia Purpurata?
Hi-
Could you help me identify this bug. It was eating the nectar from a Desert Cassia. I have attached two photos. I looked through your site and I thought it might be Lasia Purpurata. The photos were taken here in in West Palm Beach, FL. Your site is great and very informative. Thanks for your help.
Stefanie
Hi Stephanie,
This beauty is a Green Orchid Bee, Euglossa viridissima. This is a tropical genus but the Green Orchid Bee is established in Florida and has also been reported in Texas according to BugGuide. It is the second photo we have received of this species from Florida since the New Year.
Update: (03/14/2008) Green Orchid Bee
Dear what that bug I was down if Fl (Broward Co.) working on a fruit fly trapping program and collected several of the orchid bees in the traps that you posted in January. This exotic neotropical bee was first collected in the state in fruit fly traps. Attached is just so info that you may find interesting. Pete reported around the basil plants which makes sense due to the male was collecting chemical compounds that he uses to attract females.
Brian Sullivan
PS-You are doing a great job as always
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Posted 09 January 2008
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Can you help me identify
I live in south Florida. I see this feeding at the flowers in our herb garden … basil
Pete
Hi Pete,
This is a Green Orchid Bee, Euglossa viridissima. This is a tropical genus but the Green Orchid Bee is established in Florida and has also been reported in Texas according to BugGuide.Your photo is quite stunning.
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Posted 01 January 2008
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can you please identify this bug?
Hello,
We found this bug in our garden near the beach in southern California. Would you be able to identify it for us? Thanks for your help!
Lindsey
Hi Lindsey,
What a wonderful “up close and personal” image of a Male Valley Carpenter Bee you have sent our way. Female Valley Carptenter Bees are a rich black color.
Another bug to identify. Sorry. But its super weird!
I was in Acapulco in mid-November. There were a bunch of these guys flying around our house. They are fairly large, about 1.5 inches long. They make a loud noise when they fly around. There were a couple of dark colored ones and this copper colored one. They hung out in the palm tree thatch on the roof of the patio. I asked the houseman about them and he said that they nest or eat the thatch. He also said that they were called ‘abehoron’(sp?) if that helps.
Brian
Hi Brian,
This is a male Carpenter Bee, possibly the Valley Carpenter Bee. Female Valley Carpenter Bees are the dark insects. The female builds a nest by tunneling into wood. She then provisions the nest with pollen and nectar and lays eggs. The adults feed on pollen and nectar. There was probably a nest in the wood supporting the thatch.
southeast Arizona, bees
The bees in the attached photos were observed this morning (late September) at Whitewater Draw in extreme southeast Arizona. They were extremely numerous (perhaps in the 100s), and spent their entire time buzzing low over the sandy bare ground, occasionally dropping to enter small holes, occasionally coming together into roiling balls of bees such as those in the images. The animals were dusty gray, quite fuzzy in appearance, each about 1 cm long. Several other species of hymenopterans, including velvet ants and other bees, were also present. Can you tell us what these bees are and what on earth they were doing? Many thanks,
Rick Wright
Editor, Winging It
Department Editor, Birding
Hi Rick,
We suspect these are some species of Mining Bee in the family Andrenidae, and perhaps their Bee Ball has something to do with mating. We will check with Eric Eaton to get his input. Here is what Eric had to say: “The bees visible in that image are all males, vying for th opportunity to mate with a female that has yet to emerge from a burrow. Virgins are a hot commodity in the animal kingdom:-) I am not sure of the species or genus. If this image was taken in the spring, I’d say Centris pallida. “
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Posted 22 September 2007
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sleeping bee aggregations
Hi Bugman:
I noticed someone sent you a photo of an aggregation of sleeping eucerine bees which were tentatively ID’d as Melissodes. Enclosed is a photo I recently took of an aggregation of sleeping male Svastra obliqua expurgata.
Sandy Shanks
Bohart Museum of Entomology
University of California , Davis
Hi Sandy,
It is wonderful having your expert identification to accompany your wonderful image.
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Posted 23 August 2007
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found this bee?
I am not sure what type or even if this is a bee, but was is a very pretty one, I have noticed them more and more lately, is it a coincidence that these bees(?) started showing up around my yard after for the most part all regular honey bees have pretty much stopped? I have lots of them around, my daughter loves looking at them, also I would like to know if I should be worried about her trying to catch one? Do they sting/bite
Sabrina
Hi Sabrina,
This is a Metallic Green Sweat Bee in the family Halictidae. They will sting, but it is very mild. We don’t know what to say about their recent appearance except perhaps you never noticed them before. We have gotten one request recently regarding why these green bees are attracted to purple flowers and your image is just one more example of this common occurrance. Eric Eaton provided this information: “The metallic green sweat bee is a male in the genus Agapostemon. They are common and widespread semi-social bees. Eric”
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Posted 08 August 2007
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What kind of bees live in my garden, added location info
Bugman,
I will first tell you that I have taken it upon myself to see if I can identify these bees myself. I think they could be the European Dark Bee (Apis mellifera)(?) but the pictures don’t seem to match exactly. The habits of these bees is also very puzzling. In the evening these bees all congregate on my Miscanthus grass in my garden. They cling exclusively to two separate blades of grass and hang out there. They have not built any structure to live in and seem to have collected pollen for no reason at all. They do not seem aggressive but I still used caution taking these photos (that is why they are not very clear) because I am pregnant and thought it would be worth the effort to avoid getting stung by an entire group of angry bees. Can you help me identify these bees?
Thanks for checking into this, I hope this e-mail reaches you, I cannot open your websites home-page and have noticed that the latest request for ID was in ‘05. Cheers,
Jessica Strickle
Bugman,
I see your website is up and running again and have also read through some of your scoldings to those who have requested ID. I am in Washington, IL (middle of Illinois) and these bees are about 3/4 of an inch long. If you get a chance to answer this, great! I just thought I might have a better chance with better information. Cheers,
Jessica Strickler
Hi Jessica,
First we feel guilty that you have called us on chastising (we like that better than scolding) our casual readership for not providing us with much needed information. We would never think to chastise you as your letter is so thorough. Yes, our website was down as we had internet connectivity problems, but our Time Warner serviceman, Tom, has assured us that the problem is remedied now. We believe, though we are not positive, that these are Mining Bees in the family Andrenidae. What has us curious is the social aggregation in a solitary species. We are going to request assistance from a true expert, Eric Eaton, on this.
Correction (07/29/2007)
Hi, Daniel:
The bees are all males in the tribe Eucerini (family Apidae), and probably the genus Melissodes, but I can’t be positive. They sometimes congregate like this to “sleep,” gripping a grassblade or twig in their jaws.
Eric
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Posted 29 July 2007
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Pictures of a giant resin bee, I think
I saw a couple of REALLY large bees looking at a gap in the frame of a window. I have since filled the gap. Actually, it might be more correct to say one was looking, and when the other approached they both flew up, facing each other. Didn’t seem particularly friendly but I could be wrong about that. After i caulked the gap (at night, no bee activity) I saw this bee again the next day, hovering around looking for the gap, very confused. Since then i haven’t seen him. I found a picture that matches this on your site, over this message: "The bee is a male ‘giant resin bee,’ Megachile sculpturalis, an introduced species from Asia, sometime in the 1990s. It would help to know where this shot was taken, so as to help track the progress of this species. Females nest in the abandoned tunnels bored by carpenter bees. Eric" Here are my pics; these are crops, at 100% magnification, from larger pictures. I left the shutters in the left part of the picture for scale. Oh, location is Suffern, New York. And we have a shed with abandoned tunnels bored by carpenter bees. EXIF information is intact in the pictures, if you care. I was happy to have a "super zoom" to take these, even though I don’t see a stinger didn’t feel like getting close.
Joe S.
Hi Joe,
We concur that this is a Giant Resin Bee.
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Posted 05 July 2007
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Bee swarm in tree
Hi all! Just thought you might appreciate a break from all the questions, and enjoy a look at a bee swarm we found a few days ago in a front yard tree in LaFayette, NY. (I was there on a visit.) A local honey bee keeper collected the swarm and is hoping that the old queen (he says it’s always the old queen that leaves with 40-60% of the workers when a new queen is born) will produce a good quantity of honey for him next year. He estimates there are nearly 10000 bees in this swarm, which is about the size of two footballs. There are three pictures, one of the swarm protecting (surrounding) the queen after a rain storm, one of the keeper grabbing the swarm to sweep it into the hive box, and one of the box as he checks to be sure he has the queen (he didn’t and had to re-collect from the branch.) When the queen is inside, the bees line up at the entrance, deposit a lemon scent, and fan the entrance. Fascinating and fun to watch!
Diane
Chuluota, FL
Hi Diane,
Your letter and photos just fuels our desire to raise bees and eat our own garden honey.
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Posted 02 July 2007
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Leaf Cutter Bee in Texas
Hi! You don’t have to respond to this as an inquiry, but I thought you might enjoy the photos I snapped of a leaf cutter bee in my backyard in southeast Texas. I’ve had this rosebush for over a year now and have only this week spotted the leafcutter in action. They are very quick at their skill; I guess I either haven’t been out at the right time, or they are very shy. I’ve seen the neatly cut circles and I knew who the culprit was, I just hadn’t seen her before. I was pretty excited! Thanks for your cool and informative site!
Lindsey
Hi Lindsey,
We are sure our rose growing readership will appreciate your photos of a Leaf Cutter Bee in action. These bees are important native pollinators and the damage they do to leaves is minor. Of greater concern is their habit of tunneling into rose stems to create nests. Here is a link to the Colorado State University horticulture website with more information.
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Posted 02 July 2007
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