Sharp-tailed Bee

Day #29 of #30dayswild

Much of today was spent lying down, but I spent a little time in the garden this afternoon, mostly sitting, but also watching for interesting insects. 

By far the most visibly abundant species is Common Blue damselfy, which enjoy hunting over the flowers and perching on the meadow grasses. There were also quite a few Meadow Brown butterflies too.

I had hoped to photograph a Wool Carder-bee, which are back this year after seemingly being absent in 2021, but, in my beleaguered state I wasn't fast enough to photograph one. However, I did manage to capture a Sharp-tailed Bee feeding on the flowers of Knotted Crane's-bill, which self-sets very freely in our garden. This species is a cuckoo bee, acting as a cleptoparasite of two species of Leafcutter Bee (which are very abundant in the garden). 

Female Leafcutter bees construct nests of larval cells from leaves and provision each cell with a mixture of pollen and nectar for the young. Female Sharp-tailed Bees seek out these nests and use their sharp abdomens to pierce the cells and lay an egg. This egg hatches before that of the Leafcutter bee and the second instar larva uses its long curved jaws to crush the egg or young larva of its host. The Sharp-tailed Bee larva can then feed on the contents of the cell, having normal jaws in its later instars. It pupates within a cocoon spun within the host cell where the larva overwinters as a pre-pupa before emerging the following summer.