If you everwonder how you can do something to counter the Biodiversity crisis, you can, with minimum experience contribute to the documentation of biodiversity using the iNaturalist app. You don’t have to be a scientist, just an observant person with a cell phone.
Last year (2023), I first heard about the Houdini fly and I posted a message here about them occurring in the Duncan Area. Recently while i have been cleaning out my tubes I have found them in two of the locations where I provide bee boxes for my neighbours . One was in the Tower Point area where most of the tubes in one bee house were affected. The other was in the William Head area of Metchosin.
So it is essential that any old boxes with tubes should be eliminated or cleaned regularly if they are going to be reused. The Houdini flay maggots will consume all the cocoons in a tube . They are much larger than the Mono wasp larvae which are always inside a cocoon case. Also note the twisted purple mass of what I assume are feces
Cacoxenus indagator is a species of fruit fly.[1] It is a kleptoparasite, laying its eggs in the pollen-filled nest cells of mason bees.[2] On account of its ability to break out of those cells once hatched, it is commonly known as the Houdini fly.[3][4]
I was fortunate to have on our property, a brackish water estuarine marsh in which grows the native Phragmites sp. reed grass.
See this file on the Gooch creek swamp which tells the story of how I had to “save” the Reed Grass beds from extirpation by the BC Forest Lands and Natural Resources Department: (FLNRO)From Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. subsp. americanus I get the hollow tubes that I use for the mason bee homes. This is what they look like in late summer.
At this stage it is too early to cut the stems. That is best done in February
In about 1 in 20 plants, the stems are the ideal size for Mason Bees.
The tubes are cut in the early spring from the lower 1 metre of the stems.
The internode lengths range from 15 cm. to 30 cm . I select only those sections with an adequate tube diameter. 5/16 ” diameter is ideal.
The seed head tassel of Phragmites in the late summer.
The reddish stems at the base in the fall are typical of the native species.a
The 1metre sections of stem with adequate diameter are cut to one segment per node lengths
Vaious lengths can be used in different depth containers.
A smaller wire or a chain saw file should be inserted to clear any remaining dried tissue inside.
The first version of the mason bee house. Only one problem, where do you place the cocoons when they are ready to be released. Next years version soved that one.( see a following post)
A section of 4 inch drain pipe can be used for mason bee homes.
Mason bee ( blue orchard bee)adult collecting mud (with high clay content) from a wet patch near the nest box for the next round of egg laying in the Phragmites stem tubes
Since this reed grass is not generally available, it is easiest to sandwich small plates of wood with 5/16″ channels routered or sawn into them . There are many references on the internet that show how to do this.
One house had a better-than-average set of mason bee tubes filled, but many ended up with very few cocoons.
The past season was not a good one for mason bees on southern Vancouver island. Cool temperatures delayed hatching and there was poor fertilization in some of the locations . I had mason bee houses stocked with Phragmites tubes and mason bee cocoons in eight different farms of neighbours.
As I have been cleaning out the tubes and getting the cocoons in the refrigerator for storage, I have noticed a significant increase in a species of native mason bee that is much smaller than the native blue orchard bees.
Another interesting observation. was that at the bottom of the tube below the cocoons in several tubes there was a pocket of the dead but hatched parasitic mono wasps.. I cant explain that one (my best hopes would be that this smaller mason bee cocoon has some super power over the parasitic wasps…lol)
male?
smaller species of mason bee (female?)
smaller species of mason bee
Cocoons of smaller species
note frasse on the outside of one cocoon
final compartment with dead mono wasps
one of the few tubes with mono wasp larvae still alive
dead Mono wasps removed from bottom compartment
note long ovipositor for penetrating softer tubes
another end packet with dead mono wasps
pollen packets in tubes where there were no eggs laid
ARCHIVAL: This post has been re-dated from 2016 in order to position it closer in the blog to Mason Bee Information
Wings held partly erect.
In the previous post I indicated I was trying to identify wasps that had taken up residence in mason bee tubes, without actually parasitizing the mason bees
I found the larvae in tubes while removing the mason bee cocoons in the winter, and transferred them to a separate jar where I let them hatch. By May 1 they were hatching so after taking a few pictures, I sent the images off to BugGuide.
The result after several months was an identification by an expert in entomology : Our thanks to Matthias Buck of The Invertebrate Zoology Section, Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada http://bugguide.net/node/view/1218699#2158789
So he thinks there are actually three species represented in these pictures.
Ancistrocerus albophaleratus
Ancistrocerus antilope female
Ancistrocerus albolacteus
Food
Eumenines prey mainly upon moth larvae, although some take larvae of leaf-feeding beetles.
Adults take nectar.
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals) Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods) Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods) Class Insecta (Insects) Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies) No Taxon (Aculeata – Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps) Superfamily Vespoidea (Yellowjackets and Hornets, Paper Wasps; Potter, Mason and Pollen Wasps and allies) Family Vespidae (Yellowjackets and Hornets, Paper Wasps; Potter, Mason and Pollen Wasps) Subfamily Eumeninae (Potter and Mason Wasps) Genus Ancistrocerus
There were three species identified from my photographs( labelled above) although it is very difficult to confirm identity without being able to examine a specimen. Next year I will be sure to send him samples to confirm, and I will certainly not destroy these larvae when cleaning out mason bee tubes.
I have been posting my photos of different species I have encountered on the iNaturalist website. Many are species I have found here in the Metchosin Community.
Other woodpeckers have been using the suet feeder outside my window this winter but this was the first time I had seen the Pileated woodpecker here. The photo was taken hastily through the salt-sprayed window while at my desk, thus the blur! We often see and hear these woodpeckers in the summer as they like the large old fir and alder trees along the property.
Pileated woodpecker in Metchosin
Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus:Dryocopus
Species: D. pileatus
Binomial name Dryocopus pileatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
