"B" is for Bee
(Please pardon my lack of originality)
(Please pardon my lack of originality)
In this case, a cuckoo bee in the genus Nomada. The cuckoo bee was given its common name because it evolved the same kleptoparasitic practice as the European Cuckoo and North American Brown-headed Cow Bird. A female cuckoo bee does not provide for her offspring. Instead, she lays her eggs in another bee's nest. Her eggs hatch early and the cuckoo's larvae eat the other bee's provisions. Some cuckoo bees kill the other bee's eggs. Others leave the eggs for her larvae to eat. Cuckoo bee larvae often have large mandibles to facilitate eating other bee's eggs.
Cuckoo bees are not seen visiting flowers as often as other bees. Since she does not need to gather provisions for her own offspring, the female cuckoo bee only nectars often enough to take care of her own energy needs. She lacks a pollen basket, scopa or other pollen collecting body hair common to most bees. For this reason, cuckoo bees are often mistaken as wasps. Likewise, among bees, cuckoo's are poor pollinators.
Instead of nectaring, the female cuckoo spends much of her time flying low over the ground searching for nests of other bees. Once she locates a nest, the cuckoo waits for the host species female bee to leave, then enters the nest and lays her own eggs. Most cuckoo bees parasitize nests of just a few bee species (2-5), but some are very specific and only parasitize nests of just one other bee species.
(A preview of coming attractions: "M" is for moth. The small moth sharing the strawberry bloom with the cuckoo bee is a Sedge Moth in the family Glyphipterigidae.)
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