Photo #1. Joe S. from Burnaby, BC showed me this interesting occupant of his Beediverse Quicklock nesting trays. The photo above shows 2 nesting tunnels. The upper tunnel shows a common sight. It looks like sawdust, but actually is a collection of pollen feeding mites amongst pollen. The lower tunnel contains a mason bee cocoon on the left hand side and a group of pupae on the right hand side. The whole cell with the pupae was very sticky. It looks like these insects have consumed a lot of the pollen/ nectar mixture that the female mason bee had collected for her offspring.
We have never seen this inside a mason bee nesting tunnel, and we are wondering what it is.
Photo #2 is a collection of fruit flies. Joe has never seen such persistant fruit fly activity as last year (2010). The question is whether these fruit flies are the same as the pupae in photo number one. If anyone knows if this is the new Cherry fruit fly, please let us know.
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