6
votes
How do bees and wasps react to carnivorous plants?
I'm not going to directly answer your question (which I think is an interesting one) because I do not have the data. However, I do want to share some anecdotal experience with you. (As such, my answer ...
- 29.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Why are bees "committing suicide" in my house?
After years of struggling with the bees, I finally found a solution. I put in my window a lot of pots with various flowers, including some vegetable plants with flowers. Now, instead of entering my ...
4
votes
What kind of bee can dig through stone?
Here's a paper in Current Biology1 on the discovery of a species of bee (Anthophora pueblo) in Utah (US) that burrows through sandstone. Pretty cool!
Sandstone is harder than limestone, so I suppose ...
- 5,568
3
votes
Accepted
Kansas Insect (Black Bee/Wasp?) Identification
It's a paper wasp; it looks like maybe a Northern Paper Wasp (better photo needed.)
Northern Paper Wasps are most commonly found in the Midwest states. They are likely to build nests near humans as ...
- 24.7k
3
votes
Bumblebee (?) identification
Your pictures are quite blurry, but I think this is an Osmia, ie a Mason bee (and not a bumble bee). I think you can see a tendency of the “horns” that female Osmia bicornis (red mason bee) have on ...
- 16.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Waggle dance in the dark
In bees that dance in the dark (not all do, some dance in the light) they don't watch the dance, they participate. The follow the dancer using their antenna and sound to keep track of them.
Beehives ...
- 14.3k
3
votes
How to identify the subspecies/breed of a bee
I am not sure about apiculture, but in academic research it is typical that people use microsatellite markers for identifying subspecies of bees. Microsatellite are repetitive regions of the genome ...
- 2,351
2
votes
Why are bees "committing suicide" in my house?
I found another solution, for a season when the flowers on the window are insufficient. I have noticed that bees are attracted to my light bulbs, especially in the early morning when it is dark ...
2
votes
When to clean out a bee house?
I suspect that your best bet will be something non-toxic.
I would make a mark that is removable and not directly on the hole. Possibly something like beeswax to mark a circle around the hole or maybe ...
- 11.2k
2
votes
How do honeybees requeen themselves?
There are two potential circumstances where a bee colony loses its queen.
Scenario 1
The queen is old. She is not laying eggs well anymore, which means that many, most, or virtually all of her eggs ...
- 177
1
vote
Accepted
Bumblebee (?) identification
The animal in the photos is actually a female of Osmia cornuta. The horns are quite visible, which makes us exclude Osmia bicolor, and the thorax is entirely covered with black hair, which makes us ...
- 26
1
vote
Why don't bees sting hornets for defense?
Smithsonian mag says that the bee stings can't penetrate through the predator hornet's armor, which is simply a case of the hornet's armor being tougher than the blunt barb of the bee sting. https://...
- 10.3k
1
vote
How do bees help flowering trees survive?
Navoneel Karmakar's answer is correct -- there are many plant species for which bees are crucial or necessary pollinators because of self-incompatibility. Indeed, the disappearance of bees would lead ...
- 8,266
1
vote
Accepted
How do bees help flowering trees survive?
One of the goals of every living organism (including plants), thus it seems, is to create offspring for the next generation. This is the way plants (angiosperms) have sex.
That said; I personally ...
1
vote
Which species of bee or wasp are in this photo?
If these bees are definitely stingless, they're members of the Meliponini tribe, which discounts those Halictid IDs. I'm only familiar with Nearctic Halictidae, but practically every species I'm aware ...
- 134
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