2 MILLION BLOSSOMS
Anthophora came close to such a hole, the spider crept forward. A bee that lingered too long can quickly become an arachnid lunch. When the spider pounced, the bee sometimes escaped. And sometimes it didn’t.
Passage of Time The Alphington cob wall proved a fascinating place to visit, letting me glimpse the complete lifecycle of the hairy-footed southern half of the country. It’s quite widely distributed within Europe and Asia from the British Isles to China, Japan, the Near East, and North Africa. It has also been introduced to the eastern seaboard of the United States for agricultural purposes, where it has thrived and become well established. The species exhibits color variants in different locations that may represent genetic subtypes. While I was watching all the activity in the Alphington
Male Anthophora plumipes face. This individual is from the US population introduced from Japan in the 1980s. © Sam Droege, Wikimedia Commons
toward the front of holes. They looked out as if waiting for the sun. A handful were already easing out of their secured spots, displaying their hairy legs and pale-yellow mask-like faces, like masked revellers at carnival in Venice.
Survival Life for Anthophora plumipes in this ancient cob wall looks Not far from one of the resting males, I noticed another bee on a shadowed section of the wall. It was slightly larger than the Anthophora, mostly black but with prominent white spots along the slightly pointed abdomen—Melecta albifons, a cuckoo bee and the kleptoparasite of Anthophora plumipes. As the sun kissed the wall, I watched the Melecta stir
sluggishly. As it warmed up, it grew more active. I watched it Melecta do not build their own nests, rather they pillage completed nests of Anthophora plumipes and inject one of their own eggs before resealing the cell. When the Melecta egg develops into a larva, it takes over the nest, destroys the host larva and consumes the nutritious food the A. plumipes provided. A new parasitic Melecta then emerges the following spring. Although this sounds a little gruesome, the presence of this parasite may paradoxically be a good sign. Melecta will only thrive when there are abundant host colonies and they can usurp a few. I noticed some of the holes in the wall were lined with
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cob wall, a middle-aged man came up to me and introduced himself as a local builder working nearby: “How old do you think this wall is?” he asked. “400 years maybe,” I replied. “No, it’s much older, perhaps 600 years, it’s amazing it’s
still here. Look at what they used, even nails.” He was right. All along the wall pieces of metal and
nails were embedded in the cob, presumably to give the wall extra strength. I showed him the bees and he continued: “You know, bees and wasps, without them we’d be doomed. Our food supply would be so poor. They’re very important.” He wished me well and left. As his footsteps receded, I heard the echo of his words. Over 600 years this wall has stood. If he was right, this wall had witnessed the time of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I. And when did the
References This article is mostly based on my own observations, but I have
taken a few details from the following sources: 1. Falk and Lewington, (2015) Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland
2. Stone et al, Ecological Entomology (1995) 20, 169-183.
Philip Strange is a writer, scientist, and naturalist with a particular interest in wild bees. He lives in the southwest of the UK and his writing has been published in The Clearing, Resurgence and Ecologist Magazine, Zoomorphic, and in Guardian blogs. He may be found searching for unusual plants and insects on Chesil Beach, looking for rare bees by the southwest coast path, or chasing up a story about science in everyday life in the west country.
www.philipstrange.wordpress.com
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