Snuggle Bees
Most species of bees on the planet are solitary and not social like
honeybees. Among the solitary species, females have nests to return to
at night, but males have nowhere to go and end up sleeping on
vegetation. Sometimes males will huddle together for warmth and comfort.
Here are two different species of male bees, an Amegilla bee on the right and a long-horn bee (Tetraloniella)
on the left, that have snuggled up together on a stalk of grass in a
sheltered spot under an acacia tree. The photo was taken in Laikipia,
Kenya.
Ball and Chain
Cherry-eyed damselflies in the western Serengeti demonstrate their
typical mating ritual. The male is holding the female by the scruff of
her neck. She has to fly around and lay eggs while carrying his weight
on her neck. This extreme arrangement is known as mate guarding. Male
insects of many different species will hold on to females after they
mate with them. This is to prevent other males from mating with the
female and ensuring that eggs laid are fertilized only by them.
Wasp Trio
Here's a trio of mud-dauber wasps in Kitengela, Kenya. I found this
ménage à trois outside my house one morning. Two males were attempting
to mate with one female wasp. They held on tenaciously to her while she
struggled to escape their attentions.
A Healthy Relationship
Ants lovingly nurture various kinds of true bugs (Hemiptera),
often stroking them gently and protecting them from predators and
parasites. The bugs reward the ants with sugary nectar in the form of
honeydew that they secrete as a waste product from feeding on the sap of
the plants. These are scale insects (the red blobs) being tended by
redheaded cocktail ants in Kenya. In many ways this relationship is
similar to humans keeping cattle or other livestock and milking them.
Cheating Bees
It turns out that in nature there are lots of cheaters. Here a tiny stingless bee waits patiently on an eggplant flower as a Nomia bee approaches. The Nomia
bee has the capability and strength to buzz pollinate this specialized
flower. This involves the bee holding the flower in its "teeth"
(mandibles) and vibrating it at a specific frequency using its wing
muscles. Only then is pollen released. As the stingless bee is too puny
to do this, it simply waits and then steals pollen that spills out after
the Nomia bee has buzzed the flower.
Addicted to Pollen
Among the most important and straightforward love affairs in nature
are those between bees and flowers. Bees visit flowers and get dusted
with pollen as they forage. They carry the pollen around, pollinating
other flowers, and in the process make the world go round. Flowers vary
from open and accessible to complex contraptions that bees have to learn
to operate.
Here is a beautiful leaf-cutter bee (Gronocera) in Western Kenya visiting the flower of a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia).
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