Residents at the bee and wasp hotel

The hotel opened its doors on May 14th and it's been extremely popular with Chelostoma philadelphia. I'd estimate I have 10 of those at the moment. They often hassle each other, which I was surprised to see. I wish I had an ability to see which hole belonged to which bee so I could assess whether they are trying to usurp each other's hole. Or maybe they are just mildly territorial and would be agonistic against anything that came close. Several of them seem to working diligently to uncover the end caps of finished nests. Again, would be nice to know whether this is being done by hole owner or some other female that wants access to the chamber. Curious.

Had one or two Osmia earlier but none recently. I entirely missed the early-season mason bees that I hoped would help pollinate my kiwi vines (that was a fail). Just my fault for taking so long to build the darn hotel but I'll be ready with fresh, clean wood and reeds by Feb 1st, 2019.

Potter wasps have been regular visitors but I'm not positive they are happy with accommodations. Lots of room changes. ID's on them are pending so I'm not sure how many species I've had.

Most recent check-ins have been Trypoxylon collinum, kindly ID'd by @susanna_h. I have two pairs, and they are super fun to watch. But a super pain to photograph because they don't linger for more than a second on exterior of hole. One of these days I'd love to capture the female returning with a spider, or perhaps the moment she passes it off to male. They also do not get along with the potter wasps. Maybe they'll work it out.

So those are the paying guests. Freeloaders maybe in the next entry. There are a lot.

Posted on 17 de junho de 2018, 04:16 PM by colinpurrington