wenatcheeb's Identifications

This is part of a study of the bee hole above and the passer by's who stop to visit her nest. The penny and the stick are my reference marks for this nest similar to dropping a numbered reference tag.

This is still a story about her pheromones. Male bees find their mates by following the females pheromones. It is a common habit among male bees to set up an ambush outside a nest entrance or group of nest entrances so there is a good chance that this boy is her boy.

This is part of a study of the bee hole above and the passer by's who stop to visit her nest. The penny and the stick are my reference marks for this nest similar to dropping a numbered reference tage.

Continuing the association this Nomad bee to this bee hole, the Nomad bee is in a 1:1 relationship with the bee species it paracitizes in a similar manner to some bees and their flowers. The Nomad must produce the pheromones of its bee host in order to remain undetected in the nest and be reproductively successful. It may have other host species in other regions but here, locally it has only one. To the extent that Nomad bee's species can be known, it's prey can also be known. It is not an accident that it is here inspecting this hole. It followed the pheromone trail produced by the bee who lives there. The question the Nomad has to answer is whether she will be caught by the nest owner.

For more information:
Under the radar: detection avoidance in brood parasitic bees https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6388046/?report=classic

Harrison’s rule corroborated for the body size of cleptoparasitic cuckoo bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Nomadinae) and their hosts https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9243014/?report=classic