- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
We all take short cuts--short cuts around the campus, to the beach, to a favorite restaurant...
Honey bees take short cuts, too.
We've often watched assorted bumble bees and carpenter bees drill a hole in a long-tubed flower to rob the nectar.
And we've watched honey bees benefitting from this behavior.
Today we observed a carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, engaging in nectar robbing in salvia at the UC Davis Arboretum. Nectar robbing occurs when a bee or other animal circumvents the usual plant-pollinator relationship and "cheats" by entering a flower from the outside to steal nectar, thus avoiding pollination or contact with the anthers.
There's excellent information on bumble bees, their habitat needs, their behavior, and identifying characteristics in a free, downloadable PDF from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: "Conserving Bumble Bees: Guidelines for Creating and Managing Habitat for America's Declining Pollinators."
The PDF mentions that "short-tongued bumble bees will engage in 'nectar robbing' from flowers with a long corolla tube by biting holes at the base of the corolla and drinking the nectar from the outside of the flower." The bee grabs the reward but doesn't contribute to "the plant's pollination needs."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
People aren't the only ones favoring fava beans.
Fava beans growing in a raised bed in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, UC Davis, are attracting honey bees, European paper wasps, lacewings, ladybugs, aphids and carpenter bees.
We saw all six insects on a trip to the haven last Friday.
While the honey bees and carpenter bees gathered nectar, the European paper wasps, lacewings and the ladybugs searched for prey. The ladybugs were also searching for mates.
The half-acre bee friendly garden, located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, west of the central campus, is open year around from dawn to dusk. Admission is free. Visitors can conduct their own self-guided tours by following the signs and reading the plant labels. Groups that want a guided tour (the cost is $4 per person) can contact Christine Casey at cacasey@ucdavis.edu.
Meanwhile, life is good in the fava beans.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Meet a carpenter bee.
This one (below) is a male carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis.
It's also called a "mountain" or "foothill" carpenter bee.
When it slits the corolla of the flower--in this case, salvia--and bypasses the pollination process--this is called "nectar robbing."
The mountain/foothill carpenter bee is the smallest of the three species of carpenter bees in California, Thorp says. The other two are the Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, the largest, and the California carpenter bee, Xylocopa californica, the second largest.
The male of the Valley carpenter bee is a green-eyed blond and often referred to as a "teddy bear." The female of that species is solid black. And huge!
The California carpenter bee or Xylocopa californica is known for its distinctive distinctive bluish metallic reflections on the body, Thorp says. The females have dark smokey brown wings.
The one photographed below, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, is common in the center of the Central Valley, "probably due primarily to increased nest sites such as redwood arbors and fences," Thorp says. Although considered a pollinator instead of a pest, "it can be a pest when it gets into untreated redwood used for water tanks or structural timbers," Thorp points out. "The females are black with light smokey-colored wings. The male has bright yellow marks on the lower part of its face and some yellow hairs on the top front of its thorax."
You can see the yellow hair on the thorax.
And how big is the smallest of the three carpenter bees? "Much larger than a honey bee, but about half the size of the other two carpenter bees," Thorp says.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So you're sitting in your yard having your morning coffee, and you get buzzed--not a buzz from the caffeine but a buzz by a carpenter bee.
A male carpenter bee, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex, is guarding the salvia, fending off all other male suitors as it waits for a female to arrive. Then, seeking a quick energy fix, our subject stops to rob the nectar (when carpenter bees slit the corolla, bypassing the pollination process, it's called "robbing the nectar").
We managed to photograph this male carpenter (below) in quick succession: (1) in flight (2) stealing the nectar and (3) jumping off the flower.
Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex is the smallest of the three carpenter bee species found in California, according to native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emertius professor of entomology at UC Davis. The other two species: X. varipuncta and X. californica. (See UC Davis Department of Entomology website.)
X. tatabaniformis orpifex may be the smallest, but you wouldn't know it by its buzz.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
"Just wanna be your teddy bear..."
When Elvis Presley sang that, his fans swooned.
Well, there are bee fans that can't get enough of the "teddy bear" bee, aka the male Valley carpenter bee (Xylocopa varipuncta).
It's often called a "golden bumble bee." Golden, it is. Bumble bee, it is not.
The female of this carpenter bee species is solid black.
Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, spotted this male Valley carpenter bee yesterday in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research at UC Davis. He does research in the half-acre bee friendly garden. (By the way, it's located on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, and is open from dawn to dusk. There's no admission.)
We at UC Davis periodically receive phone calls about "golden bumble bees." The green-eyed, golden-haired carpenter bee does attract a lot of attention.
"Oh, let me be, your teddy bear."
Or better yet, let me "bee" your teddy bear.