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| 1 | 2 |  » Stats |
Members: 50,152
Threads: 82,335
Posts: 853,193
Top Poster: glsammy (15,069)
| | Welcome to our newest member, Bob Fleming | |  | | 
03-05-2010, 09:37 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Corfe Mullen, Dorset
Posts: 1,618
| | | Something stuck to this solitary bee?
I think this is an Osmia rufa bee, but what is stuck to the back of it's abdomen? 3rd segment I think.. something round and shiny. Any ideas?
Cheers. Jane  |
03-05-2010, 09:45 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: On the southern boundary of the Lake District National Park.
Posts: 4,582
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
Is it a bee mite latched between an abdominal segment? |
03-05-2010, 09:50 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Corfe Mullen, Dorset
Posts: 1,618
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
That's what I was wondering but as I've never seen one before I wasn't sure.
Cheers. TheWoodman |
03-05-2010, 09:57 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: On the southern boundary of the Lake District National Park.
Posts: 4,582
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
Mine may not bee the definative answer, someone else might come up with the species!  |
03-05-2010, 11:12 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Lincoln
Posts: 4,826
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
It looks a little too big for a mite, more like a stylops. I haven't seen one an Osmia rufa but have seen a few on Andrena.
Females live under the tergite, males have basic haltere type wings and only have a short period of time to find a female which doesn't leave the bee.
I have a few pics I've taken lately.
Janet 
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03-05-2010, 11:18 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: On the southern boundary of the Lake District National Park.
Posts: 4,582
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
Come on Janet, you'll have to explain a stylops to us simple country folk who are a mite simple! |
04-05-2010, 05:45 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,192
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
Stylops are internal parasites of solitary bees. They have mobile larvae that lurk on flowers and hitch a ride back to the bees nest. Once there, the larva bore into the bee larva and become an internal parasite.
When the bee emerges from its pupa the stylops protrude from between the abdominal segments. Female are immobile, males leave the bee and fly off to find a parasitised solitary bee so they can mate. Females drop eggs while the bee goes about her foraging rounds. |
05-05-2010, 06:12 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: On the southern boundary of the Lake District National Park.
Posts: 4,582
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
Thanks for the explanation, Matt. I've never heard of stylops and have learnt somehting there. |
05-05-2010, 10:40 AM
| | Wild Member | | Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Stamford, Lincolnshire
Posts: 181
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
It is probably worth mentioning that Stylopised bees are often distorted and can be tricky to identify to species because they have not properly developed.
Regards
Roger |
05-05-2010, 01:28 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Salisbury; Wilts
Posts: 2,308
| | | Re: Something stuck to this solitary bee?
Stylopised specimens often emerge earlier than non-stylopised bees of the same species. The stylops consume the fat-bodies and provoke early emergence of their hosts.
In UK, we only have Stylops on some Andrena, Lasioglossum and Halictus species. (In the latter 2 genera the genus of Stylopid is Halictoxenus)
For full information on these extraordinary insects, it is worth checking out the home pages of Jeyaraney Kathirithamby at Oxford Systematic and Developmental Biology of Strepsiptera (Insecta)
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