Parasite emerging from bee

GardenersHelper

GardenersHelper

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Nick
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In order to tell this story I am going to have to use some images in which the main object of interest is out of focus. Image quality purists may wish to avert their eyes. :)

These images were captured yesterday in our garden using a Raynox 150 on my FZ200 with KX800 twin flash. There are 1300 pixel high versions of these images in this album at Flickr.

I was photographing this bee ...

1

0902 039 2016_05_15 P1230350_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

... when I noticed something moving behind it.

2

0902 040 2016_05_15 P1230353_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3

0902 041 2016_05_15 P1230354_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

4

0902 042 2016_05_15 P1230355_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

The next thing I noticed was that whatever it was seemed to have turned up behind the bee.
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0902 043 2016_05_15 P1230356_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Was it interacting with the bee in some way I wondered, or just in close proximity? (I do occasionally see insects of different species in close proximity with "neutral" contact sometimes, for example with one walking over another with the one being walked on seeming to be totally unconcerned.)
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0902 044 2016_05_15 P1230357_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

What a strange position the smaller one was in - appearing to be "levitating". And upside down too.
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0902 045 2016_05_15 P1230359_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

8
I tried to get in closer but was disappointed at the poor image quality when it came to looking at these on my PC to try to work out what I had been photographing. I really needed more magnification but I thought I might miss the action if I stopped to put a more powerful close-up lens on the camera.

0902 046 2016_05_15 P1230361_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Continued in next post ....
 
But as I continued watching it struck me that the ... whatever it was, the black thing with the strange antennae - might in fact be emerging from the bee. Perhaps it wasn't the one I had seen in the background.

9

0902 047 2016_05_15 P1230366_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

10

0902 048 2016_05_15 P1230367_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

11

0902 049 2016_05_15 P1230371_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

12

0902 050 2016_05_15 P1230372_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Then the bee flew off. But it landed just a few inches away. No sign of the passenger.
13
It did a bit of grooming. Well, in this case scratching an itch or similar perhaps.

0902 061 2016_05_15 P1230438_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

What were the two round things at its rear end?
14

0902 063 2016_05_15 P1230451_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

I managed to get a somewhat more direct angle on its rear end. I think the third, hollow-looking one is where the black insect had emerged from.
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0902 066 2016_05_15 P1230474_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

16
0902 068 2016_05_15 P1230488_DxO RAW 01cP LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
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fantastic...............you could send those to the Insect section of the Nat History Museum

i send some photos once of a strange beetle emerging from some logs i bought
it was a 'foreigner' - they were most appreciative
 
Well captured Nick
It is amazing that the bee was still allive but how much longer. I wonder when it was parasited.
 
I suggest you post these shots in some of the bee groups on Flickr along with some explenantion and you may find out exactly what is happening here.
 
First of all great images.
Secondly, for sure there must be a number of special interests groups that would be keen to see these.
 
Wow! I'd love to know what that is too.

Is that the head of an 'unhatched' (for want of a better word) one in pic 16, right hand side, next to the hollow opening? D:
 
Interesting set of images Nick, and very well presented.(y)

George.
 
I'm absolutely amazed and you have managed to capture the actual emergence not a regular site amazing... need to add that to the bee groups on Flickr. :D
 
Thank you all so much for your kind comments. I was very fortunate indeed to see this (and am a bit miffed that I didn't do better with the focusing for this wonderful opportunity).

I looked at bee groups at Flickr - there are loads of them! I posted it to one that looked promising (although I couldn't find any way to add a comment/question before posting it, but I carried on assuming I could add that afterwards, but it wasn't obvious how to do that either - I've never posted to a Flickr group before so I'm probably missing something obvious. I'm very good at that. :)). After I posted it I realised that the group is almost completely inactive. Doh!

Does anyone know of a good group to try? In the meantime I have done a post at iSpot.
 
GardenersHelper said:
Thank you all so much for your kind comments. I was very fortunate indeed to see this (and am a bit miffed that I didn't do better with the focusing for this wonderful opportunity).

I looked at bee groups at Flickr - there are loads of them! I posted it to one that looked promising (although I couldn't find any way to add a comment/question before posting it, but I carried on assuming I could add that afterwards, but it wasn't obvious how to do that either - I've never posted to a Flickr group before so I'm probably missing something obvious. I'm very good at that. :)). After I posted it I realised that the group is almost completely inactive. Doh!

Does anyone know of a good group to try? In the meantime I have done a post at iSpot.
Click to expand...

Ones I've joined.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/817252@N23/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1678280@N21/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/34236000@N00/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1094959@N20/
 
sarah_mnstr said:
Wow! I'd love to know what that is too.

Is that the head of an 'unhatched' (for want of a better word) one in pic 16, right hand side, next to the hollow opening? D:
Click to expand...

I don't know. I'm trying to find out. It might a female. In some species the females live inside the host apparently. The males mate with them and the female remains inside the host, being eaten by her offspring. :eek:
 
Yardbent said:
fantastic...............you could send those to the Insect section of the Nat History Museum

i send some photos once of a strange beetle emerging from some logs i bought
it was a 'foreigner' - they were most appreciative
Click to expand...

sphexx said:
Natural History Musem. You can upload photos to online forums here:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/identification?view=overview
And there is a list of their Hymenoptera people here:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/staff-directory/david-notton.html
Though I'm not sure your parasitoid is a wasp.
Click to expand...

Thanks both. I've done that and have an initial response. I'm seeking clarification about what exactly we are seeing here.

Here is the response I got from jaguarondi.

The poor bee has been parasitized by some Stylops meliitae (which is in the order Strepsiptera). The one flying around is a male trying to mate with the females inside the bees body.

Was the bee rather lethargic? The one or two I've found with Stylops were.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylops_melittae

Nice pictures

Here is my reply to jaguarondi (the conversation is here. I hope there is more to come.)

Thank you for that helpful reply and link. That is fascinating.

Note - I see that the images were loaded backwards, so I referred to the wrong photos. I will use the photo ID numbers here for clarity.

Yes, the bee was lethargic. I was photographing it for 14 minutes and in that time it changed location only once I think, landing within inches of where it had previously been. It did some grooming (or whatever it is called) briefly at one point but otherwise it was still, or moved position very slightly (e.g. rotating slightly) occasionally. The flash went off about 6 inches from the bee on average every six seconds during that 14 minutes. The bee did not appear to respond to that, although a lot of invertebrates don't seem to be concerned about the flash so perhaps there is nothing of significance in this.

Do you have a view as to what is happening in images 0902 045 and 049? Is it the male mating with the female in the way described at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160429095045.htm (Link provided by someone else - I am very ignorant about these things - I just take photos.) Or are we seeing a parasite emerging from the host?

In 0902 063 and 068 there are three circular areas at the rear of the bee. The top one and the bottom right one appear to be "capped" while the one on the bottom left appears to be open and empty. Do you have a view as to what we are seeing here?
 
Tintin124 said:
Ones I've joined.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/817252@N23/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1678280@N21/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/34236000@N00/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/1094959@N20/
Click to expand...

Bryn, how does this work at Flickr when you want to ask a question? I could add a question and background to the image, but that would look odd and out of context when the image is just sitting there in my photostream and albums. Discussions seem to be hardly used in any of these groups. Would I upload the relevant images and put them into a separate album with the questions and background attached, and then use those versions in the group(s) I post to?
 
GardenersHelper said:
Bryn, how does this work at Flickr when you want to ask a question? I could add a question and background to the image, but that would look odd and out of context when the image is just sitting there in my photostream and albums. Discussions seem to be hardly used in any of these groups. Would I upload the relevant images and put them into a separate album with the questions and background attached, and then use those versions in the group(s) I post to?
Click to expand...

Add the photo to a group and ask a question in the description of that photo added to the groups normally someone will answer :D

Think the Facebook groups Graham knows are probably better for this though and the NHM will be too....

You can always contact Stephen Falk on Flickr he would be able to assist and is actually very helpful, sure he has seen it before. (y)
 
Tintin124 said:
Add the photo to a group and ask a question in the description of that photo added to the groups normally someone will answer :D
Click to expand...

Ah, ok, I'd post a separate version of the images with a comment/question in the description. Thanks.

Tintin124 said:
Think the Facebook groups Graham knows are probably better for this though and the NHM will be too....
Click to expand...

Given that I think I'll wait and see what Graham comes up with, and iSpot and NHM as well.

Tintin124 said:
You can always contact Stephen Falk on Flickr he would be able to assist and is actually very helpful, sure he has seen it before. (y)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll keep him in reserve.
 
I remember reading about these in my Wigglesworth.. Stylops! They are a very peculiar species and I've been hoping to see a male for a long time (the illustration makes it look very alien).

It's an old book (collembola are still classed as insects here) but this is what it says about them:

"The last order of insects is a puzzling group whose larvae are parasites of Homoptera and Hymenoptera. The female never leaves the body of the host and is little more than a sac of developing eggs. The male is a strange winged insect. The hind-wings alone have been retained; the fore-wings are reduced to knobbled structures like the "'halteres" of Diptera. The natural relationships of these insects, of which the best known belong to the genus Stylops (figure 164), are uncertain, but they are usually placed near the Coleoptera and sometimes included among them."

In another section:

"...in certain solitary bees and wasps occasional individuals appear which should have been males but have developed the colour patterns of females, or vice versa. That has come about because they have been parasitized by Stylops, belonging to the curious order Strepsiptera. It seems that when the body is weakened by the loss of nourishment the genes which ought to bring about the development of one sex are superseded by the latent genes of the opposite sex."

That's all it says. For a big book covering all the major orders of insects, that's not alot! Still, it was enough to peak my interest, and they were obviously not a well studied species. Obviously difficult to find, so it's great to finally see them (especially the males) up close.

Fantastic find Nick, well documented! This is what macro photography is all about!
 
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That is gruesome! Yet oddly fascinating too. Amazing you caught it all....well done!
 
And just to add I suspect what you are seeing here is the males emerging from the eggs. The egg capsules remind me of shield bug eggs which have a weakened "lid" on top through which the young emerge. I suspect the third is yet to emerge (although there is the possibility it could be the female "mother", but it looks too similar to the other egg cases to me).

My friend Ed Phillips (who specialises in bees, among other things) has another example on his site:

http://www.edphillipswildlife.com/photo14509035.html
 
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TimmyG said:
I remember reading about these in my Wigglesworth.. Stylops! They are a very peculiar species and I've been hoping to see a male for a long time (the illustration makes it look very alien).

It's an old book (collembola are still classed as insects here) but this is what it says about them:

"The last order of insects is a puzzling group whose larvae are parasites of Homoptera and Hymenoptera. The female never leaves the body of the host and is little more than a sac of developing eggs. The male is a strange winged insect. The hind-wings alone have been retained; the fore-wings are reduced to knobbled structures like the "'halteres" of Diptera. The natural relationships of these insects, of which the best known belong to the genus Stylops (figure 164), are uncertain, but they are usually placed near the Coleoptera and sometimes included among them."

In another section:

"...in certain solitary bees and wasps occasional individuals appear which should have been males but have developed the colour patterns of females, or vice versa. That has come about because they have been parasitized by Stylops, belonging to the curious order Strepsiptera. It seems that when the body is weakened by the loss of nourishment the genes which ought to bring about the development of one sex are superseded by the latent genes of the opposite sex."

That's all it says. For a big book covering all the major orders of insects, that's not alot! Still, it was enough to peak my interest, and they were obviously not a well studied species. Obviously difficult to find, so it's great to finally see them (especially the males) up close.

Fantastic find Nick, well documented! This is what macro photography is all about!
Click to expand...

Nice. Thanks for taking the time to transcribe the text Tim. That is very informative.
 
alfbranch said:
You can add these to groups and change the detail in the description Nick.
Click to expand...

But would that be a group-specific comment? I'm thinking it would be attached to the image not the group, so it would show up with the image in my photostream and albums. If that is the case then I think I'd want to upload separate copies specifically for use in asking the question of a group. Or have I misunderstood this? (Like I said, I've never put anything into a group so the culture and mechanics are foreign to me.)
 
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