The garden March 2022

It was actually the 26 February that I saw my first male Osmia cornuta.

It was not until 19 March that I saw the first female. She reminds me a bit of Winnie the Poo trying to get into Rabbit’s hole. She is much more substantially built than her mate and he has had to wait a long time for her to hatch out, as usual.

She gets straight onto the task of laying eggs and providing each one with enough stores of pollen to grow into a new bee. She goes in head first with her load of pollen neatly attached to her hairy abdomen and then comes out after she has pressed the pollen in place with her head, still with the pollen grains adhering to her.

I have not seen as many of these bees as in previous years.

Kourosh discovered a suspect tiny hill of soil just outside our front door and marked it for me with some twigs. As I passed by this morning, I noticed the soil quiver – just as I had seen molehills move on occasion.

The hole is completely covered in the evening so I quickly rushed in for my camera and sat to wait. I was rewarded by the appearance of this little head. After a few tentative ups and downs, she eventually flew out.

I think she might be an Andrena fulva. I usually see her later on the raspberries so I would be interested in what she favours at the moment. I will keep my eyes open for her now.

We have discovered another bulb worth planting in pots to attract the bees. Puschkinia are like mini Hyacinth but their flowers are more open for the bees. In addition they are gently perfumed. I find them a little small and pallid but if you like to attract pollinators to your patio you might like to try them.

All the bees have a huge amount of pollen to choose from at this time. The Willow is just about finished but the woods are full of white Sloe blossom. Gardens are full of flowering fruit trees and our honeybees are working hard bringing in the pollen.

Check out this video (16 secs.) to see the different colours of pollen they are bringing in https://youtu.be/nX3C_QTvvYM. And now HERE is the correctly posted video. Thank you Ann and Julian :).

Advertisement

First female of the season

I had always thought the Osmia cornuta males had to wait several weeks before the females appeared. So I was very surprised to see the first female Osmia cornuta, yesterday, the 4 February 2021. That is exactly one week after I saw the first male Osmia emerge.

She was actually on the ground in the tight embrace of a male Osmia cornuta when I noticed her.

With the digital camera you have no need to take a note of the time you take the photograph so I had a good record of how long she remained subjugated. It looked fairly consensual if you accept the fact that the male had her wings tightly gripped closed. She was able to walk with her burden up a shooting clematis. She is much larger than the male and I think she could have manage to release herself had she chosen.

They were just under the bee box which was being patrolled by the usual bunch of hopeful males. The other males eventually spotted the female and tried some dive bomb tactics to dislodge their rival.

Interesting as it all was, I had to leave them at it and go in for lunch. The last photograph I took of them was still on the Clematis after 52 minutes of togetherness.

I have better photographs of the female on an old blog “A good spring for Osmia cornuta”.

I will now have to see if she chooses my boxes to make her nest.

They are out!

Yesterday I thought I saw one fly past the bee houses. Today I had my camera at the ready and I saw the first male Osmia cornuta starting their search for a mate.

I never tire of seeing the first faces peer out of the holes.

It takes a little while to work up the courage to come totally out.

The next step is a good groom. He has managed to chew his way out of the capsule his mother so carefully sealed last summer with grains of sand like material. However, squeezing through his exit has left him covered in fine debris and he must smarten up before he competes with the other males for a female.

It will be a long wait, usually a few weeks before the females emerge. This year spring has started early. February 24 is an early date for the Osmia cornuta to emerge.

I have noticed a lot of “Gendarme” beetles (Pyrrhocoris apterus) this year. Seemingly they eat dead or dying insects. I hope they act as housekeepers for the bee houses as it is not only the bees that use them.

This little wasp seemed over awed by its larger more forceful neighbour.

Shield bugs have also been very evident this winter. It has been a wet winter but not very cold, so perhaps it was a good winter for them.

This one might be a Gorse Shield Beetle (Pyrrhocoris apterus), there is certainly plenty of gorse around here.

I got these hints on the beetles from the marvellous sites of Chris Luck. I have found his sites so helpful and he keeps adding additional information.

A good spring for Osmia cornuta

My bee houses have been rewarding me with lots of activity from the Osmia cornuta in the past weeks.  I’m sure they don’t need any help to find hollow nesting places but when they choose my hollow bamboo canes or drilled-out wood I have the pleasure of watching their antics.

The first I know that some bees have hatched is the frantic activity of the males.  This 17 second video gives you an idea of what it looks like.

I admire the tenacity of the males who guard the holes against all comers.  You can get the idea in this 16 second video.

The male can be easily recognised by the little tuft of white hair on his head.  They are around several weeks before the females eventually hatch and then the excitement really mounts.

The mating is not an elegant affair and this pair managed to get stuck in the tube in a sort of impasse where neither was prepared to cede defeat.

I noticed this mating pair under the box and I was surprised by the females stoic non-resistance.  That was until I saw the photograph on the computer and noticed that the male had a firm grip on her wings and back legs.

The male eventually decided to dismount and release her.

The female is a very attractive bee and is larger than the male, which is not uncommon in bees.  She lays her eggs in hollow stems or crevices and supplies the future larvae with pollen for nourishment.  She pushes the pollen firmly in place with the help of two little horns on her head.

The horns are under the antennae and as the horns are black they are difficult to see amongst the black hairs of her head.  They are best seen in a photograph.

Once the females have emerged they begin their frantic search for the perfect hole.  Despite the abundance of choice from our point of view the females have a need to explore.

Eventually one will meet her high requirements and the egg laying and pollen collection will begin.

Pollen collecting is a serious business even if putting it in place can get a bit messy.

Isn’t nature wonderful ???

The first male Osmia cornuta emerged on the 19 March.  Since then he has had to put up with dull, rainy days and colder than normal temperatures.  I know that the females emerge a few weeks later but he seems completely unaware of this and faithfully visits the holes where I presume he can smell the females, still comfortably tucked up in their cocoons.

The males also play out the waiting game sitting in any of the empty holes of the bee hotel, hoping for the sun to come out or better still for the females to emerge.

It’s not just the Osmia males that are in waiting but the Anthophora are waiting too.  (I think this may be an A. aestivalis because I’ve seen its legs and it is not a plumipes.)

But with all that waiting I think some of them must get a bit confused.

The male in the hole is desperately trying to explain he is not a female.

Giving up in desperation he retreats.

Then gathers his strength to be more assertive and push his way past.

Strangely, while all this, “Shuff off, I’m not a female” was going on, I noticed a black head emerging slowly from a hole not far beneath them.  It did make me wonder that if I had noticed and they had been waiting for it to happen for two weeks that they might have been a bit quicker on the uptake.

Eventually, without me having to shout, “She’s behind you!”, one of them spotted her.

The first Osmia cornuta female of the season emerged!

Having had two weeks to prepare for the big event, I was a bit disappointed with what followed.  I just couldn’t see this position as efficient for increasing the population of solitary bees.  They tried the threesome, never the less, until the top one gave up.

The second male moved off to watch the proceedings from the side lines.

I felt the female was getting pretty fed up and then she made a clever manoeuvre towards a free hole.

This did not deter the determined male who hung on regardless.

The female managed to squash both of them into a stalemate, whereupon the male gave up.

Having shaken off her admirer the female emerged onto the surface of the log to take stock of her position.

A male tried to take advantage of her but was warned off with a defensive position and mandibles wide open in warning.

With a few butt wiggles and a quick groom the female took off.  She will soon enough be mated and I am sure return to start her own nests.

The males that I have seen patrolling the bee hotel with impatience will have to get their technique improved if they hope to pass their genes to the future generation.  So far I would rate them at 10/10 for winter survival, spring survival and persistence but they are going to have to do better at their next attempt at copulating.