Tag Archives: kleptoparasitism

Blood bees

29 Wednesday Apr 2026

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It’s just a week since I wrote on here that I find bees ‘tricky to photograph and even more difficult to identify and, though I don’t usually duck a challenge, bees are simply a step too far’. And then I saw a bundle of these red-and-black bees, and couldn’t help myself – they looked so lovely and distinctive that maybe, just maybe they were identifiable. So, I took some photos.

Of course, when I checked my photos later that day, it didn’t take long to discover that they’re NOT identifiable, at least not to species. I can tell you that they’re Blood bees, of the genus Sphecodes, but there are 17 species of Blood bee in the UK and they need to be examined microscopically to distinguish one from the other.

I did discover that these bees may look lovely but they have a dark side; Blood bees are kleptoparasites (or cleptoparasites). The entry on the Naturespot website explains that they are parasites of

ground-nesting solitary bees, including Halictus, Lasioglossum and Andrena. The female enters a host’s nest and breaks into the cell, killing the egg or grub. She lays one of her own eggs and reseals the cell. When the egg hatches, the grub consumes the food intended for the host species’ larva.

Ruby-tailed wasp

01 Tuesday Jul 2025

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This gorgeous creature, clad in glimmering metallic colours of blue and green and red, is one of the Ruby-tailed wasps, the Chrysididae, and that’s as close to a definitive identification as I can come. According to an article I found on the BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society) website, there are currently 38 species of Chrysid wasps in the British Isles and Channel Islands. Seven of those 38 species are shown on the Naturespot website, and they all look remarkably similar to my eye so I’m not even going to try to put an exact name to the one shown here. And, to be honest, I’m just incredibly pleased that this tiny wasp didn’t immediately fly away as I approached but, instead, allowed me to get reasonably good photos to share with you.

Now, just to be clear, though they look stunning, the Ruby-tailed wasps are almost all parasitic in nature. Some parasitise the eggs and larvae of other invertebrates, including other wasp species and bees; others are kleptoparasites, stealing the food other solitary wasps leave in their nests for their own larvae. Beauty and the beast encased in one tiny but beautiful bundle.

Nomad bees

29 Wednesday Mar 2023

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Despite their kleptoparasitic behaviour (laying their eggs in the burrows of other bees rather than doing the rearing themselves), I rather like Nomad bees so was delighted to find this dandelion, as the only local pollen source, had attracted a small congregation. As usual at the beginning of bee season, I optimistically thought I’d try to identify these and was almost immediately reminded of how tricky that can be, despite some really excellent visual resources being available online (BWARS, the Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society, has very good species galleries, and Steven Falk has excellent collections of species photographs on his flickr site). Having pored through a ton of images, I have tentatively identified my Nomads as Painted nomad bees (Nomada fucata) and recorded them as such. When/if my record is ever verified (or rejected), I’ll add a postscript here.

230329 nomad bees

p.s. I’m adding a larger version of one of the above photos, as this might help with positive identification.

nomada fucata 230327 lavernock ST17946781 (4)

Gulls as kleptoparasites

24 Tuesday Jan 2017

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Some time ago at Roath Park Lake I was intrigued to notice Black-headed gulls using Coots as their personal fishers, and I have since noticed this behaviour between the gulls and Tufted ducks as well, though I haven’t yet seen them using this feeding method with the other water bird species at the lake.

170124-coot-and-gull

These gulls eat different food from the coots and ducks – gulls eat insects, worms, scraps, etc whereas the ducks and coots are mostly vegetarian, though the tufties will also eat some insects – so, presumably, the gulls aren’t actually stealing food the other birds would eat themselves.

170124-gull-and-tufted-duck

The ducks and coots dive down for food, while the gulls float patiently waiting for them to surface. When they do, the gulls paddle over to see if there’s anything interesting for them to steal. The coots and tufties don’t seem to object to the gulls, even though they’re doing all the work. I guess they would be doing the diving anyway and, if the gulls aren’t actually stealing their food, then they’ve nothing to lose. The official term for creatures that take the food other creatures have caught, prepared or collected is kleptoparasitism, hence my title.

When researching this post, I located an excellent article that goes into much more detail than I have about this and similar bird behaviour: ‘Food usurpation by waterfowl and waders’ by Juan A. Amat can be found here.