Chapter 8 Insects remember the tunneling miner bee

Miner bees are elongated bees that vary in size from larger than a wasp to smaller than a fly.But they have a common feature, that is, there is an obvious groove at the bottom of its abdomen, and a thorn is hidden in the groove. When the enemy invades, the thorn can move back and forth along the groove to protect the animal. Own.I am here to speak of a red-striped bee of the miner bee.The markings of the female bee are very beautiful, with black and brown stripes surrounding the elongated abdomen.As for its size, it is about the same size as a wasp. Its nest is often built in firm soil, where there is no danger of collapse.For example, the flat path in our yard is the ideal foundation for them.Every spring, they come to this place in droves to set up camp.The number of each group varies, and the largest one has hundreds of wasps.This place has become their metropolis.

Each bee has its own room.No one can enter this room except itself.If there is an uninterested bee trying to break into other people's rooms, the master will give it a sword without politeness.Therefore, everyone guards their own homes, and no one offends anyone. This small society is full of peaceful atmosphere. As soon as April comes, their work begins unconsciously.The only obvious evidence that they were working were the mounds of fresh mounds.As for those laborers, we outsiders rarely have the opportunity to see them.They are usually busy at the bottom of the pit, sometimes here, sometimes there.We can see from the outside that the small mound gradually began to move. First, the top began to move, and then something rolled down the slope from the top. The openings are thrown out, but they themselves do not need to come out.

Here comes May, and the sun and flowers bring joy.The miners in April have evolved into hardworking honey pickers at this time.We often see them covered with yellow dust on the mounds, and those mounds have now become like an upside-down bowl, and the hole in the bottom of the bowl is their entrance. The part of their underground structure closest to the ground is an almost vertical shaft, about as thick as a pencil, about six to twelve inches below the ground, and this part is considered a corridor. Down the corridor, is a small nest.Each nest is about three-quarters of an inch long and oval in shape.Those little nests had a common corridor leading to the ground.

The interior of each nest is smooth and delicate.We can see the hexagonal imprints of light files one by one, which are the traces left by them when they were doing the last project.What tools do they use for such delicate work?It's their tongues. I tried to fill the nest with water to see what would happen, but the water never got into the nest.This is because the spotted bee has coated the nest with a layer of saliva, and this layer of saliva wraps the nest like oiled paper. On rainy days, the bees in the nest will never get wet again. Striped bees usually build their nests in March and April.At that time, the weather was not very good, and there were few flowers and plants on the ground.They work underground, using their beak and limbs instead of shovels and handles.When they bring piles of mud particles to the ground, the nest is gradually made.Finally, use its shovel - the tongue, to coat with a layer of saliva.When the happy month of May comes, the underground work is finished, and the sunshine and bright flowers have begun to beckon to them.

Dandelions, wild roses, daisies, etc. can be seen everywhere in the field, and there are some busy bees in the flowers.After they brought nectar and pollen, they went back happily.As soon as they returned to their own cities, they would immediately change their flight patterns. They hovered very low, as if hesitating over so many similar-looking crypts, not knowing which one was their real home.But after a while, they each recognized their own marks, and quickly and accurately drilled in. Striped bees are like other bees. Every time they come back from collecting honey, they first stuff their tails into the small nest, brush off the pollen, then turn around, drill their heads into the small nest, and sprinkle the nectar on the pollen. The results are stored.Although the nectar and pollen collected each time are negligible, after many times of harvesting, the small nest has become very full.Then the spotted bee started to make "small breads" one by one. "Little bread" is the name I gave to those delicate foods.

The striped bee is preparing food for its future offspring.She kneaded the pollen and nectar into a pea-sized "small bread." This "small bread" is quite different from the small bread we eat: it is sweet and nectar on the outside and full of dried pollen inside. These pollen are not sweet and tasteless.The nectar outside is the early food of the bees, and the pollen inside is the food of the bees later. The spotted wasp finishes its food and starts laying eggs.Unlike other bees that seal up their nests after laying eggs, they continue to gather honey and take care of their babies.

The little bees grow up gradually under the careful maintenance and care of their mothers.When they cocoon and pupate, the spotted wasp seals up all the little nests with mud.After it has done its job, it's time to rest. If nothing unexpected happens, after just two months, the little bees will be able to play in the flowers just like their mothers. Good-natured elders and little robbers But the home of the spotted wasp is not as comfortable as imagined, there are many vicious robbers ambushing around them.Among them is a species of mosquito, which, though insignificantly small, is the formidable enemy of the wasp.

What kind of mosquito is this?Its body was less than a fifth of an inch long, its eyes were red and black; its face was white; its breastplate was black and silver gray, with five rows of tiny black spots, and had many bristles; its belly was gray ;The legs are black, like a vicious and treacherous killer. There are many of these mosquitoes in the range of the swarm I have observed.These mosquitoes can find a hidden place to lurk in the sun.When the spotted wasp came with a lot of pollen, the mosquitoes followed closely behind it, spinning and flying.Suddenly, the spotted bee leaned over and rushed into his room.Immediately, the mosquito also stopped at the entrance of the cave, with its head facing the entrance of the cave, and waited like this for a few seconds, the mosquito remained motionless.

They often face each other like this, only a finger's width apart from each other.But each other seemed very calm.The striped wasp, a good-natured elder, if he wants, he is fully capable of knocking down the little robber who ruined his family at the door. He can bite him with his mouth, and he can stab him with thorns, but he doesn't do that. Do.It left the little robber to lie in ambush there.As for the little robber?Although there are powerful opponents staring at it, and although the nasty little mosquito knows that the striped wasp can tear it to pieces with a little effort, it shows no fear.

Soon the spotted wasp flew away.Mosquitoes start to move.It quickly entered the nest, as rude as returning to its own home.Now it can run amok in this little nest that stores a lot of food.Because these nests have not been sealed.It chooses a nest calmly and lays its eggs in that nest.Before the master comes back, it is safe, no one will disturb it, and when the master comes back, it has already completed its task, patted its buttocks and fled.It will find another hiding place nearby, waiting for a second chance to steal. In a few weeks we shall look again at the pollen balls that the wasps have hidden in their nests, and we shall find that they have been eaten to pieces.In the small nest where the pollen is hidden, we will see a few sharp-billed worms wriggling—they are the babies of mosquitoes, and among them, we sometimes find a few larvae of the spotted wasp— They should be the real owners of the house, but they are already very hungry and thin.The gluttonous invaders stripped them of what was rightfully theirs.The poor little thing gradually weakened, gradually withered, and finally disappeared completely.The larvae of the vicious mosquito swallowed up the corpse.

Although the little bee's mother often comes to visit her babies, she doesn't seem to realize that earth-shaking changes have taken place in the nest.He never kills the strange larvae, nor throws them out of the door without hesitation, all he knows is that there lies his dear baby in the nest.It sealed up the nest carefully and carefully, as if its own children were sleeping in it.In fact, there was nothing in the nest at that time, and even the baby mosquito had already taken the opportunity to fly away. What a poor mother! If there were no accidents in the house of the old doorman spotted bee, that is to say, if there was no surprise attack by mosquitoes as I just said, then they should have about ten sisters.In order to save time and labor, they no longer need to dig another tunnel, but just take the old house left by their mother and continue to use it.Everyone politely entered and exited through the same door, each doing their own work without disturbing each other.But at the end of the corridor, they have their own homes, and each home includes a group of huts, which they dug themselves, but the corridor is shared. Let's see how they come and go and get busy.When a honey bee returns from the field, its legs are covered in pollen.Had the door been open at that time, it would have dived right in.Because it is so busy, there is no free time to hang around the door.Sometimes several bees arrive at the door at the same time, but the width of the tunnel does not allow two bees to walk side by side, especially when everyone is full of pollen, just a light touch will drop all the pollen On the ground, half a day of hard work is wasted.So they made a rule: the one near the entrance of the cave went in first, and the others waited in line one by one.After the first one went in, the second followed quickly, followed by the third, fourth, fifth... Everyone lined up and went in in an orderly manner. Sometimes it happens that one bee is about to come out, while the other is about to go in.In this case, the bee that wants to go in will politely step aside and let the bee inside come out first, and each bee behaves very graceful and polite in front of its own kind.Once I saw a bee had reached the entrance of the hole from the corridor and was about to come out. Suddenly, it retreated again, giving the corridor to the bee who had just returned from the outside.How interesting!This spirit of mutual assistance is really admirable. With such a spirit, their work can be carried out quickly. Let's keep our eyes open and observe carefully, there are more interesting things than this!When a bee returns to the mouth of the hole after gathering pollen from the flower-field, we can see a trap that blocks the hole suddenly drop down, opening a passage.After the foreign bees enter, the trap rises up again to block the opening of the hole.Similarly, when the bees inside are about to come out, the trap door is lowered first, and after the bees inside fly out, it rises up again to close it. What was this thing that went up and down like a plunger in a syringe?This is a bee, the gatekeeper of the house.It covered the hole with its big head.When the inhabitants of this house want to come in and out, it pulls the "bolt", that is to say, it immediately withdraws to one side, where the tunnel is so wide that two bees can fit in it.When the other bees passed, the "door guard" came up again and put his head against the entrance of the hole.It guards the door motionless, so conscientious, unless it has to drive away some uninvited guests who don't know what to do, otherwise it will not leave its post without authorization. Let us take a closer look at the gatekeeper when he comes out of the hole now and then.We found it to be the same as other bees, but its head was flattened, and its clothes were dark black with stripes.The fluff on the body is no longer visible, and the beautiful reddish-brown pattern it should have is gone.This set of tattered clothes seems to tell us everything. This bee, which used its own body against the door and acted as an old gatekeeper, looked more vicissitudes and age than anyone else.In fact it is the builder of the house, the mother of the present worker bee, and the grandmother of the present larvae.Just three months ago, when he was young, he was toiling away on the house alone.Now it is considered to be retired—no, this is not retirement, it still has to use its remaining heat to protect this home with all its strength. Do you remember the story of the suspicious kid.It looked out through the crack of the door, and then said to the wolf outside the door, "Are you our mother? Please show me your white legs. If your legs are black, we will not open the door." Our old grandmother was no less vigilant than the little goat.It said to every visitor: "Show me your black bee feet, or I will not let you in." Only when it recognizes that this is a member of its family, it will open the door, otherwise it will never let any outsider enter its house. look!An ant walked by the hole, it was a bold adventurer.It really wants to know what this place that exudes a burst of honey fragrance is like. "Go away!" said the old bee, shaking her head. The ant was startled by it, and walked away angrily.Thankfully it went away.If he lingers by the hive, the old bee will leave his post, and fly after him unceremoniously. There is also a kind of bee that is not good at digging tunnels, that is, the sawfly bee. It looks for tunnels that have been dug before.The striped wasp's tunnel is perfect for it.The nests of spotted wasps that had previously been raided by mosquitoes and occupied by mosquitoes remained empty.Because the mosquitoes wiped out their family, the whole family has been ruined.Therefore, the wood sawfly can logically occupy this empty nest and use it as a waste.In order to find such empty nests so that they can put those honey pots made of dead leaves, these wood saw bees often visit the territory of my spotted bee.Sometimes it seemed to find its target, but before it could get its feet on its feet, its buzzing caught the attention of the gate guard.The doorman rushed out of the hole immediately, and made a few gestures at the door, telling it that the hole had already been owned.The sawfly understood what it meant, and immediately flew elsewhere to find a house. Sometimes before the gate guard comes out, the sawfly can't wait to stick its head in.So the old grandmother who was the gatekeeper immediately put her head up to block the passage, and sent out a signal that was not very severe as a warning. The sawfly immediately understood the ownership of the house and left soon. There is a "little thief," a parasite of the wood saw wasp, which is sometimes taught by the spotted wasp.Once I saw it was severely punished.As soon as the reckless creature smelled of the tunnel, it mischievously thought that it had entered the home of the wood sawp wasp.But after a while, it immediately realized that it had made a big mistake. It broke into the home of the spotted wasp.It ran into the old grandmother who was guarding the gate and was severely punished.So it fled in a hurry.Likewise, other ambitious and thoughtless fools who try to break into the home of the spotted wasp will no doubt be treated in the same way. Sometimes the gatekeeper bee gets into an argument with another old grandmother.Mid-July is the busiest time for bees.At this time we will see two very different bee colonies: that is, the old bees and the young mother bees.The young female bee is beautiful and agile, flying busily from flower to flower and from flower to flower.And those old bees have lost their youth and vitality.Just pacing from one hole to another.It looks like you've lost your way and can't find your home.Who are these homeless people?They are the old bees who have lost their families by being deceived by the wicked little robbers.When the first summer came, the old bee finally realized that it was a hateful mosquito that came out of its nest.But it's too late, it has become a homeless and lonely old man.It had no choice but to leave its hometown in grievance, and went elsewhere to find another way of life.Find out which one needs a butler or needs a doorman.But those happy families already have their grandmothers to take care of everything.And these old grandmothers are often hostile to the old bees who come to look for jobs and grab their own jobs, and often give it a blunt answer.Indeed, a home only needs a doorman is already enough.If two came, it would block the originally narrow corridor. Sometimes there was a real fight between the two old grandmothers.When the old wandering bees stop at the door of another house, the old grandmother who guards the door tightly on the one hand, on the other hand challenges the old bees from outside with open teeth and claws, and the one who wins is often the one who is physically and mentally exhausted. A sad and frail old lone bee. What happened to these homeless old bees?They are aging day by day, gradually decreasing in number, and finally all extinct.Some of them were eaten by those little gray lizards, some died of starvation, some died of old age, and some died of heart failure in despair. As for the old grandmother who guards the gate, she never seems to rest. In the early morning when the weather is still cool, she has arrived at her post. At noon, it is the busiest time for worker bees to collect honey. Flying in and out, it is still guarding there; in the afternoon, it is very hot outside, the worker bees don't go to gather honey, and stay at home to build a new nest. At this time, the old grandmother is still guarding the door.In this sweltering heat, it doesn't even doze off, it can't doze off, the safety of the home depends on it. At night, even late at night, when the other bees are resting, it is still as busy as the day, guarding against thieves at night. Under its careful guard, the safety of the entire hive can last until after May.If the mosquito comes to snatch the nest, let it come, the old grandmother will immediately rush out and fight it to the death.But they won't come.Because until next winter, they are still pupae hiding in cocoons. Although there are no mosquitoes, there are also many other parasites.They are also likely to invade the hive.However, the strange thing is that I have carefully observed the hive every day, but I have never found any enemies of bees near it.It's been so quiet and peaceful all summer long.It can be seen that those thugs already know how powerful the old grandmother is.At the same time, it can also be seen how vigilant the old grandmother is.