The tale of the bee and the wasp, a rarely seen story of solitary foes

Sitting in a different chair in the garden (I really know how to make lockdown more exciting !) I saw a drama unfold before my eyes over the course of an afternoon.

The protagonists of this drama are a leaf cutter bee (Megachile species);

 and a solitary wasp (Sapyga quinquepunctata) hereafter referred to as Bee and Wasp.

First up I saw the bee approach and check out a small hole in my garage wall

It vanished inside for a minute or so and decided that this was just the place to raise a family.

Over the next hour or so it made several visits with cut up leaves and bulging pollen sacks.

The leaves are used to build small cells into each of which the Bee packs pollen and then lays an egg.  The idea is that the eggs hatch into larvae that feed on the pollen until they pupate. Next spring new bees will emerge to repopulate the garden.

This time things took an altogether darker turn though.

Between two visits a different insect entirely suddenly appeared

This was the Wasp. It clearly saw that the hole had potential too. It landed and watched  until it confirmed that the spot was indeed occupied by a leaf cutter bee. You can see the unsuspecting bee in the nest entrance just behind the wasp here

Once the bee had left again the wasp rushed into the nest and laid its own eggs. Apparently these will hatch quickly into a grub that is, at first, equipped with overlarge jaws. It will use these to eat any bee eggs.

Later as the wasp grub moults the jaws are replaced with smaller ones, just right for eating the pollen, so carefully stored by the Bee.


While nature is invariably fascinating, it is not necessarily pleasant.

I think I will write a cheerier blog later on today