{"id":1053,"date":"2011-01-28T22:42:19","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T03:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=1053"},"modified":"2011-01-28T23:32:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-29T04:32:24","slug":"uninvited-but-very-cool-houseguests-guest-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/28\/uninvited-but-very-cool-houseguests-guest-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Uninvited (but very cool) houseguests – Guest Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today’s special guest blogger is Jess Vickruck<\/a>, a PhD candidate at Brock University. Jess studies twig nesting bee diversity and the impacts of nest choice on their biology.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first started my master\u2019s project, my intention was to look at how nest choice affected fitness in twig nesting carpenter bees (genus Ceratina<\/em>, family Apidae).\u00a0 Little did I know that along with twigs full of bee larvae I would also get up close and personal with numerous uninvited house guests who all had one thing in mind – Ceratina <\/em>are delicious!\u00a0 Although my supervisor continually reminded me that my thesis was about the bees and not the species that eat bees, I wrote up the data, and lucky for me it appears in the 2010 edition of the Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Over the summers of 2008 and 2009 I found no less than eight different species of natural enemy snacking on my immature Ceratina, <\/em>and each species had with its own unique way of going about things.\u00a0 They were so common in fact, that after a while, I could tell the differences between parasitoids as larvae, just from their behaviour and developmental characteristics.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Hoplocryptus<\/a>

Hoplocryptus zoesmairi (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

By far the hungriest uninvited house guest was the ichneumonid wasp Hoplocryptus zoesmairi<\/em>.<\/em> The H. zoesmairi <\/em>egg could be seen attached to the first Ceratina <\/em>egg laid in the nest.\u00a0 The wasp would hatch along with its host, but would allow the baby carpenter bee larva to go about eating its pollen ball until it was large enough.\u00a0 The H. zoesmairi <\/em>larva would then consume the small carpenter bee larva, whatever was left of its pollen ball, break down the wall that separated the bee from its brother or sister, and repeat the process.\u00a0 After two to five immature Ceratina <\/em>had been devoured, the H. zoesmairi <\/em>larva spun a silken cocoon, pupated and emerged.\u00a0 I knew these beasts were killing my sample size, but they were just too cool to stop!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Baryscapus<\/a>

Baryscapus americana larva which have migrated to the anterior and posterior ends of the Ceratina larval skin. You can see their red eyes and black abdomens!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"B.<\/a>

Adult B. americana female<\/p><\/div>\n

The award for the most organized parasitoid goes to Baryscapus americana <\/em>(Eulophidae).\u00a0 Several individuals would consume the carpenter bee larva from the inside, leaving only the larval skin.\u00a0 Once they were done eating, the <\/em>parasitoids would migrate to opposite ends of the host, so that their heads were either at the anterior or posterior end of the remaining bee skin.\u00a0 I could then watch their eyes and bodies change colour before they chewed their way out of the skin as adults.\u00a0 Some individuals also overwintered as prepupa.\u00a0 It was quite a surprise when my un-emerged (and presumed dead) parasitoids began flying around the lab the following spring!<\/p>\n

\"Coelopencytus<\/a>

Coelopencyrtus sp. individuals developing inside a Ceratina larva that never got to finish its pollen ball. You can see the eyes changing colour on the individual at the bottom right of the image.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Coelopencyrtus<\/a>

A newly emerged Coelopencyrtus sp.<\/p><\/div>\n

The cutest carnivore was easily a Coelopencyrtus <\/em>sp. (Encyrtidae).\u00a0 Even though they killed the poor bee as it tried to eat its pollen ball, I couldn\u2019t help but think \u201cAwe, look at how cute they are!\u201d\u00a0 (See the photo to decide for yourself).\u00a0 They also gave you good bang for your buck, as more than 20 individuals would emerge from a single Ceratina <\/em>larva.<\/p>\n

\"Eupelmus<\/a>

Eupelmus vesicularis with its strange wings<\/p><\/div>\n

The strangest looking parasitoid was easily Eupelmus vesicularis <\/em>(Eupelmidae) with its bizarre wings!<\/p>\n

\"Axima<\/a>

Two Axima zabriskiei suck a female Ceratina pupa dry<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Axima<\/a>

An adult A. zabriskiei<\/p><\/div>\n

Axima zabriskiei<\/em> (Eurytomidae) took the \u2018Booster Juice\u2019 approach to Ceratina <\/em>consumption.\u00a0 Two individuals could literally suck a bee larva dry in 24 hours!\u00a0 Now that\u2019s a high-protein, liquid diet!!<\/p>\n

Probably the creepiest Ceratina <\/em>hunter I came across were physogastric mites from the genus Pyemotes<\/em>.\u00a0 One tiny individual (less than 0.5 mm) could effectively paralyze an entire Ceratina <\/em>pupa.\u00a0 Even teneral adults were at risk.\u00a0 After paralyzing the bee larva or pupa, female mites began to feed on the bee\u2019s haemolymph, causing her abdomen to swell to many times her original size.\u00a0 Hundreds of mature mite offspring would emerge by piercing their way through their mother\u2019s abdomen \u2018alien-style\u2019.\u00a0 For some reason, of all the species killing Ceratina, <\/em>I found this one the creepiest.<\/p>\n

\"Eurytoma<\/a>

Eurytoma sp near apiculae<\/p><\/div>\n

A second species of Baryscapus <\/em>and a parasitoid from the genus Eurytoma <\/em>(Eurytomidae) round out the natural enemies I observed here in southern Ontario.\u00a0 If anyone encounters any that I haven\u2019t described I would love to hear about it!<\/p>\n

Many thanks to my supervisor Dr. Miriam Richards<\/a> for letting me go out on this tangent and to Dr. John Huber<\/a> at the Canadian National Collection of Insects and Arachnids for his invaluable assistance with insect identifications! (Without him they all would have remained parasitoid 1, parasitoid 2, parasitoid 3…)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ResearchBlogging.org\"<\/a><\/span>J.L. Vickruck, J.T. Huber, & M.H. Richards (2010). Natural enemies of the bee genus Ceratina (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 141<\/span>, 11-26
\n<\/span>
\nOPEN ACCESS HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s special guest blogger is Jess Vickruck, a PhD candidate at Brock University. Jess studies twig nesting bee diversity and the impacts of nest choice on their biology. When I first started my master\u2019s project, my intention was to look at how nest choice affected fitness in twig nesting carpenter bees (genus Ceratina, family Apidae).\u00a0 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,4,175,176],"tags":[36,179,35,222,127,221,223],"class_list":["post-1053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","category-entomology","category-guest-blog","category-publication","tag-apidae","tag-graduate-student","tag-hymenoptera","tag-larva","tag-parasite","tag-parasitica","tag-rearing","category-75-id","category-4-id","category-175-id","category-176-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1053"}],"version-history":[{"count":81,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1143,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}