Osmia rolling greenbees into little balls.
Mon, 08/31/2009 - 16:39 — J Scott
Today as I was observing the bees in my sunflowers. I noticed that several Osmia were determined to pick on a green bee that had landed on one of the sunflowers. The Osmia would come over, land on the green bee and then roll it into a ball. It looked like they were trying to steal the pollen off the green bee, but I couldn't really tell. Does anyone know what the Osmia are doing?
Alternative possibility
On second thought (and since what I wrote below really applies to honeybees and not necessarily Osmia), could the little green insect have been a cuckoo wasp? (See http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=chrysidid&search=Search) According to Marshall, cuckoo wasps lay their eggs in the nests of solitary bees like Osmia, and they are sometimes attacked by the larger bees. When attacked, they roll in a ball to protect themselves.
Learning so much!
So, the bees I thought were honeybees, really were Osmia. I was able to get a hold of pictures that showed me the difference and on the link that was sent on the cuckoo wasp, pictures 15, 16 and 17 (if you count across the pictures) looks pretty similar to the ones I saw. This is so fascinating! I am learning so much!! So, what are the differences between a green bee and a cuckoo wasp? I may have been counting some of my bees as green bees when they are really cuckoo wasps.
Pollen Theft
You may have witnessed what's thought to be a rare event. See http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2317/0406.15.1?journalCode=kent