Often mistaken for bees, and sometimes called “meat bees” these common half inch long wasps are frequent unbidden guests to picnics and outdoor events where food is displayed. the German wasp and the common wasp Vespula germanica and Vespula vulgaris) from Europe and now widely established). Some of these are native insects and some have been introduced (e.g. The colorful yellow and black-striped insect is a true wasp, a “yellow jacket” (the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula). They also typically have longer stings that most other bees. Their exoskeletons are thickened giving them armor plating from stings of other bees. Cuckoos usually have sparse hairs, or flattened hairs that are more like scales. Most people coming across a cuckoo bee would think it was some type of wasp. Neat trick! Cuckoo bees are very unlike most bees in their appearance. Neat trick! Cuckoo bees have a lifestyle almost identical to cowbirds which sneak eggs into the nests of foster parents. Unknowingly, the host female has provided the food for her parasites brood. When these females are "out shopping" at flowers, the cuckoo bee female sneaks in the open entrance to lay one of more of her own eggs on the provisioned food masses created by the nesting female. Instead, these cleptoparasites patiently wait near the entrances to the nests of other ground-nesting bees, often related species. They do visit flowers for energy-rich nectar. Unlike most bees, cuckoo bee females do not forage for pollen to feed their young. Worldwide, they represent about 10% of the world's 20,000 bee species. They get their common name for their type of life history. At least four US species of bumble bees have declined rapidly in the past decade possibly due to introduced microbial pathogens.Ĭuckoo bees are aren't crazy bees. Check NAPPC's Ecoregional Guides and other sources for suggestions about what flowers bumble bees like and how to create pollinator way stations for these essential pollinators. We can thank bumble bees for buzz-pollinating (they literally turn themselves into living tuning forks and buzz (sonicate) pollen out of pored anthers) blossoms that give rise to favorites including blueberries, cranberries, eggplant, and tomatoes. Bumble bees are also champion pollinators of native plants and garden favorites. The colony grows rapidly but dies out each winter, making bumble bee colonies annual instead of long-lived perennial colonies like the honey bees. Soon, her daughters take over the foraging activities while she stays in the nest and lays eggs. In the spring, these females emerge from their "dens" and begin foraging for nectar and pollen to raise a brood. Bumble bee queens mate with males in the fall months and only the newly mated queens overwinter in underground hideaways in a form of insect hibernation. These are social bees, like honey bees, with castes and a queen, but form much smaller colonies. About 47 species are found within the United States. Two hundred and fifty species of bumble bees, the genus Bombus, are known. Bumble bee are those charismatic fuzzy mostly black and yellow "bumblers" known to gardeners worldwide.
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