*special announcement*
I predict that this coming year will be excellent for bumble bees. Around Victoria, our first bumble bees were seen the first week of February after a short stretch of sunny weather. With our mild winter, there most likely was a high survival rate of the various Bombus species of hibernating queens in the ground. Bumble bee boxes should be put out now as they will start looking for suitable nesting areas. Go to "Mason Bee Condos and Bumble Bee Boxes For Sale" https://sites.google.com/site/hutchingsbeeservice/mason-bee-condos-for-salepage for ideas to consider or look on the internet for further designs. Remember, bumble bees just need a one-compartment box, not a fancy apartment as some designs have. I've seen bumble bee nests on flat surfaces even!
*note: a lot of these photos have bees that haven't been identified yet but I'm getting to them eventually. 
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This recent post on one of my entomology discussion groups had this. Thought it appropriate as it's pretty much what I've been saying at my talks too.
Name witheld but he's a retired honey bee keeper. "In the past few years Colony Collapse Disorder has been frequently in the news. While it's nice that bees are getting attention, exaggeration and "Chicken Little" hype are not beneficial. Generally the theme is that honeybees are going AWOL and that our food supply is threatened. I have been trying to counter this threat, noting that while there are problems such as CCD, the beekeeping industry is responding quite well to the threat. I've also pointed out the inaccuracy (probably serious underestimate) of the official numbers of colonies in the US. Now it's nice to get confirmation of what I've been saying: http://economics.clemson.edu/files/ccd-paper-full-package-apr14-2011.pdf The next thing I've been pointing out is that wild bees are much more difficult to replace than honey bees. I am hoping to see more confirmation of this in the future. Honey bees and wild bees each have a role to play in our food supply - and in the total balance of ecology. Sometimes they overlap; many times they don't. I am pleased to be a part of a group that is doing serious study of the wild bees and their role. I am not pleased when I see separation, competition, and antagonism between advocates of wild bees and advocates of honey bees. Both groups should be natural allies; the problems that confront each group of bees are significantly similar. One of the most serious problems that face ALL bees is the one mentioned here: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110930/NEWS01/309300018/Mysterious-south-Brevard-bee-kill-confounds-costs-keepers?fb_ref=artsharetop&fb_source=profile_multiline I have seen more of these pesticide kills than I can count. And consider - if (replaceable) honey bees are so seriously affected - how much more the wild bees are affected! We all need to get more involved in preventing such disastrous losses of both groups of pollinators." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And, here's another one from the Apoidea bee-listserve
This is by Peter Bernhardt, author of "The Rose's Kiss", "An Orchid Paradise" and "Gods and Goddesses in the Garden" http://www.slu.edu/x17535.xml
No one is trying to demonize anyone. Obviously, protection of pollinator and pollinator-services works only if beekeepers, scientists, local naturalists (who are often amateur beekeepers) and federal/state employees work together. The fact remains, though, that some beekeepers are living in la-la land based on recent, shared communications. Here are the facts.
1) Honeybees are not native to the flora of the western hemisphere.
2) Nectar and pollen is a limited resource consumed both by honeybees and native animals with anthophilous foraging habits.
3) Commercial bee keepers introduce hives by the hundreds into agricultural areas (fine with me) but that doesn't mean that honeybees always prefer the nectar and pollen they obtain from domesticated crops when they have the choice of flowering plants found in natural areas adjacent to cultivated fields.
4) Some beekeepers find this final point the hardest point to understand. The presence of any animal on a flower doesn't mean that flower has a true pollinator. Animal-mediated cross-pollination is a "balanced act." Honeybees DON'T pollinate every native flower they visit even though they may exit the flower with nectar and pollen from that flower. I have nearly 30 years of publications on who does and who doesn't pollinate based on fieldwork in North America, Australia, New Caledonia and Israel. Sometimes the honeybee is a dependable pollinator and sometimes it ain't but it is almost always a dependable remover of nectar and pollen. That's o.k. with me. My darling, Xylocopa (males and females) are good, native, North American citizens and they certainly don't pollinate everything they visit either but they are virtually the ONLY pollinators of one of the native milkweeds I've studied the last two years. The fact remains that you won't see hundreds of thousands of Xylocopas in a conservation area punching holes in the flowers but you can certainly see hundreds and thousands of honeybees in the same site if commercial apiarists are permitted to bring in their hives within a certain radius.
I love honey, beeswax candles and consume enhtusiastically every fruit and vegetable pollinated by honeybees (especially those yummy Californian almonds). However, I also love to eat pork sausage, beefsteaks, fired chicken and roast duck (Chinese way is best) in the clear knowledge that these animals were not permitted to forage in reserved, conservation areas during their life times. If dear little Miss Apis and her many sisters are permitted to do what is sweet and natural in a conservation area doesn't that mean that Bossie the cow, Donald duck and the three little pigs must be allowed the same access?
Peter
Bees are fascinating - an introduction
Before the arrival of the honey bee, brought by European settlers to North America, native pollinating bees provided the biotic service for pollen exchange and fertilization in flowering plants. With over 450 species of native bees in British Columbia and Yukon, these bees still perform the majority of pollination, especially for native plants. Many people do not recognize what these native bees look like let alone what their life cycles and biology consist of. With so much diversity of flowering plants, the native bees too have much variation in anatomical characteristics that are best suited to service these native plants and are perfectly in tune with our climatic conditions having evolved here together for millions of years. Native bees anatomy have much variety in tongue lengths, hairiness, jaw types and overall size, just to list a few, that enable them to extract nectar and pollen from various shapes and designs of flowers. Nesting materials are variable and in some cases, specific for certain bees, utilising clay/mud, mulched leaves, flower petals, pieces of leaves or flowers, in spaces such as hollow plant stems, beetle holes in trees, snail shells, or any crack or orifice naturally occurring or human-made. Native bees excel at remembering patterns and they fixate not only on flower colours and ultraviolet patterns seen only by the bees, but their nests and collection sites are mapped and retained in their neural matter with great accuracy.  Diadasia australis on cactus flower in the Thompson-Nicola region of southern B.C.
 What appears to be xeric and desolate, is infact dense with native bee diversity
 About 70% of our native bees build their nests in the ground and about 90% are
solitary bees, living a life as individual providers for their offspring. Our native bees can sting repeatedly should they ever come to a situation for defence, but this does not exist for the most part towards humans, and besides, their venom is far less potent than other venomous insects such as yellow jacket wasps and hornets. Male bees can't sting at all and their existence is mainly for mating purposes only. Some native bees are equipped with unique glands that can exude products that are used as "glues" to line their nest to repel bacteria, fungae and plants underground, whilst others exude wax to build their honey pots and brood cells.  A species of Hylaeus, which is a small black bee that doesn't look like a bee, in the family Colletidae.
Then there are the parasitic bees that lead the life of living off of their host's bees, parasitizing another female bee's nest and laying their eggs inside so they can steal the provided food source and develop within the rearing chambers.  A species of Sphecodes, a cleptoparasitic bee on other ground nesting bees
The main threat to our native bees is the loss of habitat, both foraging habitat as well as suitable nesting habitat, be it specific ground that mining bees require, or physical substrates such as rotting logs or standing trees. Use of pesticide and the detriment it does to native bees appears to be fairly understood by most people now but the providing of suitable expanses of crop edges, native meadows as well as making bee boxes conducive for bee homes, are something we can all learn about to benefit our native bees and put in to practice in both urban and rural areas where growing food crops is concerned. Bee families in our region consist of the following families:
Andrenida
Apidae
Colletidae
Halictidae
Megachilidae
(Some consider Mellitidae as another family but I will go by Michener for taxonomic classification)
 These little bees which I haven't identified yet, most likely a species of Anthophora (my winter project to i.d. 8 shmitt boxes of bees), was digging a nest in this soil.
  So, Ryan and I decided to dig in a little to investigate. There were about 20 bees per square metre going into their own little holes. We just had to investigate.  We found this developing pre-pupae of some genus of bee with the remains of the provided pollen mass still left over in the brood chamber. Most likely a Colletes or Halictus bee.
 This was another bee that looked like it had developed to the adult stage but would've been in a state of diapause until next spring. Most likely an early Spring bee so I would guess Andrena.   I can't remember what type of non-native, garden variety of flower this was, but it had lots of male bumble bees visiting their fuschia coloured flowers. Maybe it was a hollyhock?
 Many types of Asteracea like Senecca and Hieracium, are valuable foraging flowers for many native bees like this Megachile species.
 Lasioglossum males "lekking" and feeding on a head of Taraxacum officinale (dandelion).
 This looks suspiciously like a species of wasp but it was right in amongst the Lasioglossums at the Whitehorse community gardens. I collected it but as yet have not looked at it until I see this photo. hmmm...  A male decided to die on the flower. I think it's a species of Anthophora.
  So, what kind of bee is this? If you said it's not a bee but a winged ant, you're correct. The ladybird beetle was just hunkered down on the sepals of this sunflower and just happened to be there for the photo.
 
A species of Anthophora at forget-me-not garden flower.
 In the forested area along the Aishihik River Rd. in YT, this burned tree stump is pretty typical habitat for many types of hole nesting bees, especially the megachilids. They take up residence in excavated buprestid or cerambycid beetle exit holes.  Here's a species of Megachile in the old tree trunk. In the same trunk, I also found a bee that looked suspiciously like a Ceratina but I didn't know this species would occur so far north. I didn't collect it to verify unfortunately.
 A recent fire at the north end of Hwy. 37 near the Yukon border but in B.C. This small patch of wild Asters had a pretty good diversity of bees such as Megachile, Osmia, Anthophora, and Hylaeus but what was missing, were all the bumble bees, a common bee outside of the immediate fire area. And why is that? Go to one of my talks and you'll learn about ground nesting bees and the differences in depth of their nests, ground duff layer, and the succession of a forest rebuilding after fire.
 Along a stretch of the Takhini River in southern Yukon. This was on a horse ranch and had plenty of diversity of bees still. A beautiful spot.
 Traps set out for bees, which consists of yellow and white bowls (all my blue bowls broke and I had no pink), with water and a drop of dish detergent to break the surface tension when the bees come to check out a big "flower". This is along the Klondike Hwy, north of Whitehorse, YT.
 Between Achilla, Solidago and Epilobium, I got lots of species of Lasioglossum, Bombus and Anthophora, both in my traps as well as actively net collecting.
 Collecting above the Alaska Hwy west of Teslin, YT.
 Some of the highway ditches are smokin' hot for bee diversity which are often overlooked. The bored drivers sure do stare at the melittologist collecting and photographing bees however. This is also along the Alaska Hwy. in southern YT.
 Well known for its butterfly diversity, the Fish Lake Rd. just outside of Whitehorse is pretty decent for bee diversity too. Even on a greyish day, the bumble bees were thick on the Hieracium, Taraxacum, Achilla, Solidago and Epilobium. Being a bit cool, the bumble bees still visit flowers but are definitely slower which is good for photography. At this particular time and place, it was active with several species of male Bombus.
 A typical amount of bumble bees at this spot on Fish Lake Rd.
 Bombus lucorum on Taraxacum officinale (dandelion).
 The community gardens in Whitehorse
 Dease Lake has their community gardens on either side of Hwy. 37. These people had to deal with nosie bears and snoozing moose in their patch, hence the wire. All the nearby wild flowers have ample native bees that might want to stray in to their crop when it's in bloom.
 Meanwhile back in Victoria, my condos were filling up. This particular tray of 7mm channels had three different species - 2 Osmia and 1 Anthidium which makes its nest from hairs extracted from leaves of lamb's quarters.  Here's the close-up of the smaller species of Osmia (probably O. texana) that started first at the back of the channel. Note the orientation of some of the cocoons and the leaf mulch used for cell divsion. The fuzzy white ones are Anthidium cocoons.
 Inside the "wool" of Anthidium, this is what the cocoon looks like. Interesting how clean from bee larva excrement it was as they incorporate this into their cocoon packaging!
More coming... |
