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NATURE NOTES: The wool-carder bees |
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Monday, 21 July 2008 |
French: Anthidie à manchettes – Latin: Anthidium manicatum.
Gardeners! Look out for wool-carder bees.
There are many species of bee and few
resemble the honey bee. There are more than
30 species of carder bee alone in France.
The males of the largest species are almost
as big as hornet wasps, nearly two centimetres
long. You might imagine they are wasps, but
wasps always fold their wings lengthwise
when at rest, whereas bees cannot do this.
Further, in these bees the yellow markings are
generally confined to distinct strips at each
side and there are often two yellow spots
behind the eyes. The females are about two
thirds of the size of the males. The female is
called the carder bee because it does just that.
It ‘cards’ hairs from plants with the long tough
hairs on its legs. (Carding is the process of
untangling wool with two wire brushes
or combs.) The rather wide front and centre
legs of the females carry the bristles and
probably account for the French name (à
manchettes – shirt-cuffs).
The bee takes the balls of hairs and thrusts
them in series into a suitable hollow stem, or
hole in a rock or wood. She lays eggs in these
balls of hairs eggs and a store of pollen and
honey as a food supply for the grubs. Plants
like the woolly Stachys lanata (lambs’
tongues) are quite a favourite source of hairs.
Other species of carder bees favour different
plants, often of the labiate family (mints etc)
but some prefer thistles. So it is helpful to note
on which species of plant you have seen the
bees. This group of bees collects the pollen on
a golden-yellow tuft of hairs on the underside
of the abdomen, unlike the honey bee which
has pollen baskets on the two hind legs.
Carder bees are frequently found in
gardens. They are harmless, more or less.
OPIE (L’Office pour les Insectes et leur
Environnement) has a campaign to plot the
species found in France. Although native,
their geographical distribution is not well
known. In Britain, one species
is found reasonably often in
the south-easternmost quarter.
An expert can often
distinguish between the
various species from
photographs. So if you can,
take a digital photograph of
any specimen (preferably
from different angles) and
email them to me with
detailed information as to the
location, and your own name
and address. If you do get a
specimen, keep it so that it can
be sent later.
While the females are
searching for nectar, pollen
and hairs, the huge males
defend the area where they are
working. They parade up and
down a row of suitable plants
chasing away any other males.
They carry stout curved spines on the sides of
the abdomen and at the rear of the body, and
with these arms can seriously harm any other
bee, tearing the wings or puncturing the body.
However awesome, they have no sting but
they are far from being the idle drones which
are the males of the honey bee. When mating,
they are big enough to carry a female
physically away on the wing.
OPIE produces an excellent journal (French)
on insects. www.inra.fr/opie-insectes/
French speakers can contact
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Brian Cave,
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