Recently got lucky and was able to observe and photograph two Large Carpenter Bees mating (I think). They were flying and tumbling around together all over the meadow and nearby hedge.
After a while I found them in the grass and to my surprise another much smaller Mining Bee had joined the party.
Has anyone seen such behavior before? Was that little bee just confused or could this have a specific purpose?
It is most likely a confused male looking for sex :)
Male bees are not always very discriminating about whom they attempt to mate with and they may jump on anyone vaguely resembling a female of their own species. For some reason (quite possibly pheromones) male carpenter bees seem to be the frequent object of such misguided amorous attentions.
I’ve been collecting such incidents here. (Technically the project is for any interaction between bees of different species, but so far the majority of such documented interactions have been mating attempts.)
Thanks for this insight, Brenda. Herpers see a lot of male frogs trying to mate with rubber boots, trying to mate with flattened females (hit by cars), etc.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and the project.
Didn’t know that and haven’t not seen this kind of interaction yet but I also haven’t been a bee voyeur much, yet.
