Author Gary Taylor ◦
Still in BeeTown and back to Meroglossa rubricata, to me the most fascinating of all bees… As I’ve mentioned before, they not only communicate to each other with their own “language” of buzz like vibrations, unlike most “solitary” bees she doesn’t fill a nest with individual chambers, cap it off, move to another, repeat and die four weeks later… She lives on in her chosen nest protecting the family she’s raising.
Bold statement I know. A recent “ongoing” scientific study on them I read, suggested they DO cap off their nest with the typical Hylaeine “cellophane” like cap. That project was however based on a remote relatively unmonitored bee hotel. Scientist heard a rubricata had been seen, a few days later a cellophane cap appeared, no evidence who made it… two plus two equals eleventy one… it was an assumption based on hear-say.
I’ve spent six years studying and photographing these bees and every aspect of their lives and in all that time not one has ever “capped off” a nest. I think in my last post of them (a couple months back), I said I reckoned they occupied 50-60 nesting sites in my BeeTown… Yeah I was a bit out… Did a proper count last week, only counting actual faces in holes and only including the vacant spit lined ones that I knew were occupied, and counted 78… 78! and then saw several more fly in and go into uncounted holes just in the next few minutes.. And not only not one cap ever, I have years of photographical evidence showing that once a nest is established that’s it, there will be a bee guarding that nest all year round, year after year… To this day the first hole ever occupied in my BeeTown by Ruby (as I call her) 6 years ago, has never been capped and has never not had a bee guarding it…
But! Can I prove my theory? (the truth 😅) Dunno, but I’m gonna give it a damned good crack…😀 I might not convince you but I bet I leave you wondering…
Righto, so as I mentioned, been watching for years, got to know the routine, even get a basic understanding of their “language”, what the little (but remarkably loud) buzz vibrations mean. And in this series of pics she (and some others*) are thickening up the lining at the entrance to their nests…
Now, some of you may remember the Multicrystaline polyinverted refractionism they use to cool their homes in summer and assume they are just reversing the polarity for winter 😆 but I’m not so sure… It’s only *some bees, and I’ve seen this enough times now to know what’s gonna happen next and perhaps why she does it… 🙂 If I’m right (phhffft, I know I’m right… I can hear the kids doing their flight muscle exercises in the bamboo tubes…), over the next week or so the young will be encouraged to come out from the nest and take life on on their own. But because they’ve actually been raised in a house with at least one protective parent/guardian (yep, often two, Sisters? Mother and daughter? nest passed down the generations? Dunno, that one’s still got me stuffed but I suspect it starts with the first and ends with the latter… Grandma protecting the little ones while their mum does the shopping… pretty crazy hey 😂), anyway, like a lot of teenagers*, most wont want to leave, some will even have to be physically forced out… 😆 Sure, they’ll be given a bit of leeway at the start, allowed back home the first day or so, especially if they’re the “favourite” child 😅 Dead set, they actually seem to have a favourite child, hence my theory of Mother and daughter…
*And I use the word “teenagers” ‘cos everybody knows bees pupate as fully grown adults, normally… But Ruby’s not “normal”, her young are visibly smaller… Yep I know, another crazy claim, well it’s all gonna happen in the next week or so and I’m going to try to bring everything I’ve just said (and more) to the table with photographic evidence… 😃 So stay tuned. Haha, gotta love a challenge, if this doesn’t pan out I’ve just made a total dick of myself… 😆😅😂
Photographs – Geraldton, Midwest WA © Gary Taylor
Check out the Gary’s other blogs about the Meroglossa rubricata:
an awesome “Commando roll” | Ruby… bubbling | Ruby and the wasp | Party at the nest | red is the weakest, the first to fade in low light | A white bubble | multicrystaline polyinverted refractionism… | suddenly something bigger came torpedoing out of the nest… | running out of room to add new apartments… | She lives on in her chosen nest protecting the family she’s raising | the young emerge | Changing the rules again…
See our Fauna section on Bees for more info on our gorgeous Meroglossa rubricata.
Check out more blogs and contribution by Gary Taylor.