- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The narrowleafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis, beckons monarch butterflies (the host plant), aphids, praying mantids and assorted other insects, but once in a while, you'll see a leafcutter bee. Both the plant and the bee are natives.
This male bee (below) spent the afternoon patrolling for females, but it rested in between.
It's a dangerous place to rest when there's a predator (praying mantis) around, but all ended well.
Leafcutter bees, spp., so named because the females cut leaves and petals (perfectly round holes!) to line their nests, are smaller than honey bees--and much faster. They're easily recognizable by the black-white bands on their abdomen.
The females do all the work. They gather pollen and nectar, make the nests from the leaf and petal fragments, and lay eggs. They seal the egg chambers with the leaves or flower petals.
The male's job is to reproduce. And sometimes, you'll see one sunning itself on a milkweed leaf.
Of the 4000 bee species known in the United States, about 1600 reside in California. The leafcutter bee is just one of them. The family, Megachilidae, includes these leafcutting bees, Megachile angelarum, M. fidelis and M. montivaga; the alfalfa leafcutting bee, M. rotundata; the Mason bee, Osmia coloradensis; and the blue orchard bee (BOB), Osmia lignaria propinqua.
For more information on California's bees, read California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday), the work of UC-affiliated scientists,
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hey, the sun's up! It's time to rise and shine! Maybe I'll shine before I rise...or maybe I'll...
Anyway, I just woke up, and I'm starting to stir. I'm ready to conquer the day. I shall
- Sip nectar
- Seek girlfriend
- Guard the flower patch by dive-bombing and chasing off all critters.
- Repeat.
The scenario: a male longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis, has just spent the night sleeping--and quite cozily at that--on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola.
He is Boy Bee With the Green Mesmerizing Eyes.
Boy Bee With the Green Mesmerizing Eyes does not know--nor would he care if he could--that today is the beginning of National Pollinator Week, an international annual event celebrating pollinator health.
According to the Pollinator Partnership, "pollination is a vital stage in the life cycle of all flowering plants. When pollen is moved within a flower or carried from one flower to another of the same species it leads to fertilization. This transfer of pollen is necessary for healthy and productive native and agricultural ecosystems." It's crucial to our ecosystem.
As the Pollinator Partnership says on its website:
- "About 75 percent of all flowering plant species need the help of animals to move their heavy pollen grains from plant to plant for fertilization."
- "About 1,000 of all pollinators are vertebrates such as birds, bats, and small mammals."
- "Most pollinators (about 200,000 species) are beneficial insects such as flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and bees."
But back to Boy Bee With the Mesmerizing Green Eyes.
Noted bee expert, the late Robbin Thorp, a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology and co-author of California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday), used to talk about these little guys bullying all the floral tenants--from honey bees to syrphid flies to butterflies to lady beetles--and more.
Boy, do they move fast. A good time to photograph them is when they're sleeping or just waking up. Otherwise, try to capture images of them at a shutter speed of about 1/5000 of a second.
Happy Beginning of National Pollinator Week!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Back in the 2009, a team of University of California scientists, led by Gordon Frankie of UC Berkeley and Robbin Thorp (1933-2019) of UC Davis, wrote this incredible article, "Native Bees are a Rich Natural Resource in Urban California Gardens," published in California Agriculture (UC Agriculture and Natural Resources).
It's an excellent resource.
The abstract:
"Evidence is mounting that pollinators of crop and wildland plants are declining worldwide. Our research group at UC Berkeley and UC Davis conducted a 3-year survey of bee pollinators in seven cities from Northern California to Southern California. Results indicate that many types of urban residential gardens provide floral and nesting resources for the reproduction and survival of bees, especially a diversity of native bees. Habitat gardening for bees, using targeted ornamental plants, can predictably increase bee diversity and abundance, and provide clear pollination benefits."
Jennifer Hernandez, Barbara Ertter, Jaime Pawelek, Sara Witt, Mary Schindler, Rollin Coville, and Victoria Wojcik. Coville provided the images.
"Outdoor urban areas worldwide are known to support a rich diversity of insect life (Frankie and Ehler 1978)," they wrote. "Some insects are undesirable and characterized as pests, such as aphids, snails, earwigs and borers; urban residents are most aware of these. Other urban insects are considered beneficial or aesthetically pleasing, such as ladybird beetles and butterflies; this category includes a rich variety of insects whose roles in gardens go largely unnoticed and are thus underappreciated (Grissell 2001; Tallamy 2009). They regularly visit flowers and pollinate them, an important ecological service."
"We report the results of a 2005-to-2007 survey of bees and their associations with a wide variety of ornamental plant species in seven urban areas, from Northern California to Southern California. While non-native honey bees (Apis mellifera) are common in many gardens, numerous California native bee species also visit urban ornamental flowers. Of about 4,000 bee species known in the entire United States, about 1,600 have been recorded in California."
That deserves to be repeated. Of the 4000 bee species known in the United States, about 1600 reside in California. See some of them listed on the chart above.
Notice it includes the non-native bee, the honey bee, Apis mellfera. It is an "introduced bee," although numerous non-scientists think it's a native. European colonists introduced it to America (in what is now Virginia) in 1622.
The phrase, "Save the (Honey) Bees," became prominent during the colony collapse disorder. But the bees that need saving now are the natives.
If you want to know more about the native bees in California, this book should be in your library: California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists by UC-affiliated scientists
/span>- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you've ever tried to photograph male long-horned bees, Melissodes agilis, you know how fast they can fly and how quick they can dart.
They fly even faster when they're chasing the females of their species.
It was the last day of June. I was watching the female long-horned bees foraging on the Mexican sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifola, in our garden, and the territorial males targeting all "unwelcomed" visitors (honey bees, carpenter bees, and syrphid flies) and chasing prospective mates.
The University of California-affiliated authors of the book, California Bees and Blooms: A Buide For Gardeners and Naturalists, say it well: They "fly wildly around gardens looking for mates and stop occasionally to take a sip of nectar from flowers."
Yes, they do fly wildly--and you need a fast shutter speed to photograph them.
I set the shutter-speed of my camera, a Nikon D500 with a 200mm macro lens, at 1/8000 of a second. Other settings: f-stop 5, and ISO, 800.
Here they come! There they go.
Where DID they go?
At 1/8000 of a second, you can stop the action. You can stop time. You cannot, however, stop a determined suitor from chasing a mate. They don't slow down.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ready or not, here I come!
"Wait, can you slow down a bit?" I ask. "I can't focus when you move so fast!"
No, sorry! I'm in a hurry!
Anthophora urbana, a solitary, ground-nesting bee, frequents our garden to forage on the catmint (Nepeta) and lavender (Lavandula). This bee is also called an urbane digger bee (see BugGuide.net).
This one encountered a honey bee, partly obscured by the foliage, but neither seemed bothered.
California is home to more than 1600 wild bees, including A. urbana, according to the University of California-authored book, California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday). They "populate and pollinate our gardens, fields, and urban green spaces," the authors say.
That they do. And there's a very good reason why this bee is photographed more often on flowers than in flight.
Sorry, I'm in a hurry!