Bumble Bees and Carpenter Bees!

Again we are getting lots of different Bumble Bees up here! It is great to see so much diversity. However many people get Bumble Bees and Carpenter Bees confused. Bumble Bees have hair on their abdomen and Carpenter Bees do not, their abdomens are shiny like the individuals below. Bumble Bee's have hair on their abdomen.

Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa (Notoxylocopa) tabaniformis orpifex)

California Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa californica)

We love seeing the Bumble Bees up here and the populations seem to be doing well. Even thought several studies have said that populations have decline, from a  fungal pathogen, Nosema bombi.
Other studies have also proven that the abundance of the European honey bee has also caused a decline in the populations because of competition. European Honey Bee's collect the nectar causing a scarcity of nectar in areas for the Bumble Bee. Bumble Bee's respond by sending more foragers to get nectar instead of pollen. This in return leads to fewer offspring of the Bumble Bee. 

There are things that can be done. The Xerces Society is helping land managers create strategies for increasing pollinator numbers. Land managers need these pollinators for wild flowers, blueberries, tomatoes and many other crops. There are also local groups trying to create habitat for bees like Texas Bee Watchers.  You can make your yard more bee friendly as well. Below are some of the Bumble Bee's we have seen along the way.

Nevada Bumble Bee (Bombus nevadensis)

                                        Indiscriminate Cuckoo Bumble Bee (Bombus insularis)

                                        California Bumble Bee (Bombus californicus)

We also got one of these guys in flight!

Kendra and John

Lake Isabella and Rivernook Squirrels!

We ended up visiting Lake Isabella on Sunday afternoon. It was very successful. We got sooo many insects it was hard to photograph it all in one night. In fact there are still some little beetles running around unphotographed.

This is a Pepsis sp. The common name is Tarantula Hawk. These guys are amazing. They will sting a tarantula, which paralyzes it and then drag it to its burrow. Here it lays it's tiny eggs inside the tarantula and when it's larva hatch they eat the paralyzed tarantula alive! The insect world is amazing!

One of the neater finds is the Microcoryphian! Kind of looks like a silverfish but different order entirely. It is not an order that you run across on a normal collecting trip. It has contiguous eyes, is real rounded and has beautiful stripes. We found this little guy running around in the gravel near Lake Isabella.

I was really excited to see a bumble bee. In almost all of their ranges Bumble Bees can be difficult to find because their numbers have declined all over the world.  Reasons for the decline are numerous including competition with the non-native European Honey Bee. This Bumble Bee in particular is one of the prettiest ones I have seen with the red hairs on the tip of the abdomen. This one has a little bit of an unfortunate name Crotch's Bumble Bee (Bombus crotchii).

Finally we have a group of California Ground Squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) around our camp. They are actually colonial species which made a lot of sense since I have been smelling rodents the whole time we have been here. About 8 feet from our trailer we have a colony! It is fabulous to see them running around all day AND they love the Texas Pecans! They can be quite vocal as well as you can see below!

If you are unfamiliar with where we are here is a map.




Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012