Bee flies stalking Miner bees

In the back garden bee flies are locating the entrance holes of solitary ground bees (April 09). Hovering over the mud bank, they wait and watch the ground bees activities.
Four solitary bee species are sharing the bank.
When the bees have left the tunnels the parasitic bee fly will flick its dust-rolled eggs into the tunnel entrance and then nature takes its course.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• bee flies
• bee fly
• miner bees
• ground bees
• solitary bee
• parasites

[bmoisset]

Ah, those evil beeflies that kill our friendly bees! Of course, I realize that this is the way things are in Nature, but I can't help it if I sympathize for the bees.

[solitarybee]

It's mother Nature - but it was a bit chilling when I realised what they were up to; that they weren't just  wide nectar loving hover-flies. Very sinister!

[simbirdcom]

Yes interesting ;-) thanks for sharing and the infomation too !

[solitarybee]

I have only just this year got to know about them, so was happy to catch them.

[sigma1920]

how interesting!

ive never seen the behaviour myself yet.

merci!

[solitarybee]

When I saw several species of miner bees tunnelling in the mud bank, I patiently hung around (in the middle of this hole I had dug to make a pond) to film then. It was at that point I caught the parasitic bee flies in the middle of their stalking game.

[draconite420]

@solitarybee USa actualyl released these flies to combat fire ants, so nature? yes but not natural. Once more we fuck eco systems up by introducing foreign insects.

[eccentricoldcow]

Amazing how wildlife works hey? A bit like the cuckoo when it hatches and kicks out the young and eggs of reed warblers and other birds it takes over from.

Humans are much the same. We are all parasites of something. We are the biggest parasite on the planet I imagine.

That's the ways of nature and there's not much we can do about it, apart from unbalance the whole thing.

Thanks for this SB. :)

[TheAileZX2]

That poses the question. If humans were part of nature, why are some just insulted, yelled at, and frowned upon for killing the bugs themselves? Especially when it comes to territorial defenses. Try seeing ANY ant frown upon one another for biting you if you accidently get one on your arm.

[solitarybee]

Merci. J'étais super-content de capturer toutes ces activités au même endroit.

[jonolemon]

Intéressant ! Très bien observé !