Wool-carding bees (?), parasitic wasp
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Lisa Millbank
Aug 9, 2014, 8:36:10 PM8/9/14
to Mid-valley Nature
I noticed what I thought was a large hoverfly at our blooming catnip
plant today. After watching it for a while, Don and I determined
that it was actually a bee of some kind. A similar, smaller bee
with a slightly different color pattern was also visiting the
catnip. When I saw them mating, it was pretty clear they were a
male and a female of the same species!
The male was extremely aggressive toward honeybees, hoverflies, Cabbage White butterflies and skippers; he was so busy driving off everyone else from his catnip and lemon balm plants that he would only stop for a couple of seconds to feed before zipping away again. The female visited flowers busily, and showed little aggression.
I believe these are a species of wool-carding bee (please let me know if that's not correct!). They're in the same family as leaf-cutter bees and mason bees, but instead of cutting circular pieces out of leaves or gathering mud for nesting, the female gathers fine, "woolly" plant fibers and uses them to make a nest lining.
I also attached a picture of a tiny sweat bee of some kind, which I didn't try to identify.
Last night, I was stripping the stems out of Lacinato (black) kale leaves. Aphids often hide under the bumpy, puckered leaves, so I was scrutinizing each leaf. To my surprise, a minute parasitic wasp was hatching from a "mummified" aphid. It seemed to be having trouble emerging, but I left it outside in case it was able to fly away.
Lisa Millbank
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com
The male was extremely aggressive toward honeybees, hoverflies, Cabbage White butterflies and skippers; he was so busy driving off everyone else from his catnip and lemon balm plants that he would only stop for a couple of seconds to feed before zipping away again. The female visited flowers busily, and showed little aggression.
I believe these are a species of wool-carding bee (please let me know if that's not correct!). They're in the same family as leaf-cutter bees and mason bees, but instead of cutting circular pieces out of leaves or gathering mud for nesting, the female gathers fine, "woolly" plant fibers and uses them to make a nest lining.
I also attached a picture of a tiny sweat bee of some kind, which I didn't try to identify.
Last night, I was stripping the stems out of Lacinato (black) kale leaves. Aphids often hide under the bumpy, puckered leaves, so I was scrutinizing each leaf. To my surprise, a minute parasitic wasp was hatching from a "mummified" aphid. It seemed to be having trouble emerging, but I left it outside in case it was able to fly away.
Lisa Millbank
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com
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