In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, adults re-emerge in late March to recommence the species' life cycle.įemale mason bees carry pollen on scopal hairs located on the undersides of their abdomens, a trait that helps identify them - and which they share with other members of the Megachilidae family, such as leafcutter, resin and cactus wood-borer bees. In Texas, they emerge in August and then overwinter as adults.
When utilitiling snail shells as nest cavities, the female bee deposits a single egg in a shell, provisions it with food and then encloses it within protective materials.Īfter hatching, Osmia subfasciata bee larvae pupate for as long as ninety days.
BLUE BEE TEXAS SERIES
Each female Osmia subfasciata bee independently constructs and provisions her own nest, arranging her egg chambers in linear series along a tunnel-hole, and laying around twelve or fewer eggs. The viscous flesh of prickly pear cactus may well provide a good glue base for a natural cement.Īlthough several females may collect materials from the same cactus, Osmia subfasciata mason bees are not gregarious they do not build their nests close together to form nest aggregations like some solitary bees. The bees use this cement mixture to construct the walls and partitions of their nests. Osmia subfasciata mason bees transport balls of masticated plant material to a nesting area, drop each ball onto the ground and then chew and knead it while rolling it along the ground to incorporate sand or dirt into the mass. The bees fashion mortar from chewed-up plant parts mixed with coarse sand or soil. Osmia subfasciata build their nests in beetle burrows abandoned snail shells plant stems and abandoned wasp nests.
They are solitary, like most members of their genus. Jack Neff, President of the Central Texas Melittological Institute and author of a vast compendium of publications on bees, among them "Nest biology of Osmia (Diceratosmia) subfasciata Cresson in central Texas (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)".Īccording to this article, Osmia subfasciata mason bees are polylectic - that is, they forage on a wide gamut of plants. The blue mason bee species observed on prickly pear and shown here has been identified as Osmia subfasciataby Texas bee expert Dr. In all cases, the bees seemed to do no damage to the cactus: they focused on collecting soft materials gathered around the spines protruding from newly budding nopales (cactus pads). The bee was one of many iridescent blue mason bees engaging in this activity: over the period of a few days, this website's authors observed numerous mason bees visiting the same prickly pear and then using their jaws to carry mouthfuls of cactus to a wooded area where the bees disappeared into tunnels leading inside a rotted log.Īfterwards, we examined various prickly pear plants throughout the county of Hidalgo and encountered other groups of the same industrious blue bees using prickly pear cacti to build their nests. The bee shown at right was observed in late March, 2019, harvesting pieces of the soft, newly-emerged buds of a spring prickly pear cactus growing at the National Butterfly Center. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, mason-bee activity may entail the novel practice of using the succulent flesh surrounding the stickers of prickly pear cactus as building material. Mason bees often nest in hollowed-out pithy stems or in pre-existing holes and cavities found in wood or, less often, in soil or rock cavities. The bees build partitions separating their nests' egg chambers construct walls to seal nest entrances and occasionally line walls with transported materials. Mason bees employ materials such as masticated leaves, resin, mud and even pebbles to engage in "masonry". The name "mason bee" derives from Osmia bees' practice of utilizing plant parts and soil to construct nests.
0 kommentar(er)
