Bee Neighbors
I recorded 2 very different sized Andrena in side by side holes today. The first bee to show its self was very small compared to the bee on its right. The small bee is harder to see, it doesn't stay out of its hole long it could be a Furrow Bee, or both could have been Andrena. Can there be that much size difference in a single species of Andrena or have I caught 2 different species of Andrena or two different geniuses of bees living side by side in the same aggregation? After the bee on the left completes its first appearance, hit pause and drag the progress bar to the 8 minute mark and continue watching. Little Bee will poke its face out again then Big Bee will start coming out. It will dance around a little then do some grass acrobatics before flying off.
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Good job!
i wish I knew! They are very different in sizes, I don't think. Little Bee is a Furrow bee (Sweat bee, Halictid) Big bee is an Andrena of some sort. She takes so long to get moving and then the darn grass is so uncooperative!
I think it was a nest take over rather than building.
Neighbourhood Society: Nesting Dynamics, Usurpations and Social Behaviour in Solitary Bees
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774747/?report=classic
Between bee mortality and nest abandonment there are lots of empty nests available. Little bee goes back into the nest under no local pressure to do so spends 8 minutes doing what ever, maybe just thinking and pokes its face out again about 7 minutes later just before big bee. It was cool cloudy and windy. barely warm enough to fly.
I went back out to checkup on thees two this morning. It looked promising. Mostly cloudy with scattered sun breaks. Good enough flying weather to get them out of the nest but not so good that they would be out doing what bees do best with the flowers before I could get there. I saw little bee and spooked her back into her hole as I was setting up the camera.
Ground winds were from the south when the rain started to make small threats. I could see rain to the north and thought I was just being grazed by the perimeter of the squall. Boy was I wrong. I don't have pictures to prove it, but little bee is still using the nest she was in 2 days ago, and I need to dry out before going back out.
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