Category: bees (Page 19 of 28)

Bug of the Week: Citizen Science Opportunities Ants and Bees

For those of you who are interested in child-friendly citizen science projects, we have two special events happening this month as part of ongoing citizen science projects.

1. School of Ants has a writing contest for students.

School of Ants is the citizen science project where participants can collect backyard ants under different conditions and send them in for identification. This month the organizers are sponsoring a writing contest for students, with the deadline Sept 1, 2012.

Details:

  • Open to any student studying ants
  • Essay should be between 300 and 600 words in length
  • Be sure to include a short biography of author with photo
  • A photograph illustrating the essay topic may also be added (optional)
  • Multiple submissions are accepted
  • First prize is $500
  • Runner-up essays may be published on School of Ants website

See School of Ants for submission guidelines.

Even if your student is not interested in writing an essay, you may still gather samples to participate in the main part of the project. This video will give you an idea how it works and help get you started.

2. The Great Bee Count on August 11, 2012

In conjunction with the ongoing Great Sunflower Project, researchers are looking for volunteers across the country to spend 15 minutes on Saturday August 11, 2012 counting bees on flowers. If possible the flowers should be sunflowers (preferably, Lemon Queen), bee balm, cosmos, tickseed, or purple coneflower.

To participate, login or register at the Great Sunflower Project website. You will be asked to download a data sheet with detailed instructions to record your results. After you count,  you return to the website and click on the “Report your bee count” link to input your observations.

Just to be clear, you don’t have to have participated previously. This is a special, one time count.

To help with identification:

A honey bee is brown with not entirely distinct dark bands on its abdomen. It is moderately hairy and has four wings.

Carpenter bees are often black and the top of the abdomen is shiny, not hairy.

Here in Arizona we have many different species of solitary bees.

They tend to be smaller than honey bees and come in a wide range of colors. Some are mining bees, sweat bees,

and these brightly-striped digger bees.

Leafcutter bees are dark gray and have a pad of white hairs on the underside of their abdomen.

In general, bees tend to be fuzzy.

For more about different kinds of bees, see a slide show at Scientific American

If you do either of these projects, we would love to hear about your experiences.

Bug of the Week: What is in the Sunflower?

Today we have a bit of a mystery in our sunflowers.

Most of the flowers look like this:

This flower is different:

Yes, there is still a bee collecting nectar and pollen.

But there are some clues that another insect is hiding in this flower as well as the bee.

Any ideas what kind of insect is in this sunflower besides the bee?

Bug of the Week: Chalcid Wasp on Sunflower

The sunflowers are quite lovely this week and are attracting a number of insects.

One of the insects that was hanging out on a sunflower leaf was a tiny chalcid wasp.

The first thing I noticed was the hind leg. The femur, which would be the thigh region on a human, is greatly enlarged and reddish brown.

Here’s a better view. Notice the brilliant light blue around the eyes. This is a very pretty little wasp.

Chalcids are parasitic wasps. Their larvae feed on or in another insect that is larger than they are. Chalcids often feed on caterpillars or fly larvae, although some use bees or beetles as hosts. I’m not sure what species this is or what it eats. The enlarged femora (plural form of femur) are thought to be used to hold or manipulate the hosts while females lay their eggs.

Although they are called wasps, they are so tiny they are not harmful to humans in any way. If the caterpillar or fly they feed on is a pest, then they are considered to be beneficial insects. Some chalcids are available commercially for biological control efforts.

Although this wasp is pretty small, one of it’s relatives is considered to be the smallest insect in the world. The male of Dicopomorpha echmepterygis is smaller that a one-celled parmecium!

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