The Cuckoo in the Nest

FRIDAY

Thank you for all the stars, hearts and comments on Thursday's blips of Harriet's graduation. We stayed overnight with Harriet and George, but left early as they were both working [from home].

We stopped off in Matlock for a look around and a coffee and we were back home mid-afternoon.

A few weeks ago, I reported that our colony of Chocolate Mining Bees had returned. They have a short season of around three weeks and have now disappeared from sight. 

Sadly, it appears that the mining bees have been followed by flavous nomad bees (Nomada flava). They have shiny, waspy, yellow-striped abdomens and their orange-brown bodies are not conspicuously hairy. The branched hairs, the feature that separates bees from their wasp ancestors, can just be seen in the photo. 

The chocolate mining bee digs a deep burrow in loose, open soil, into which she stores balls of nectar-laden pollen on which she deposits an egg. The flavous nomad bees have  sneaked in and laid their eggs on the pollen. When the two eggs hatch, the nomad’s sickle-shaped jaws will make short work of the mining bees' larva.