Everybody Shows Up to the Party Hungry

Everybody Shows Up to the Party Hungry

This large leafcutter bee is a serious pollen magnet.  Most of it goes to feed her brood, but some, by chance, is transferred to the flowers it feeds on. Most pollen is not as large as that of these Indian Blankets.  If you have an area of full sun, these are terrific flowers to attract  pollinators.

In February when you were looking out the window at the snow and daydreaming about summer, June is the month you were probably imagining.  It is the “What is so rare as a day in” month.  By now most of your early annual flowers, bulbs and spring ephemerals, have bloomed and gone, but the big, sturdy summer blossoms are opening up and serving the vast insect public as meeting place, restaurant, cheap motel and nursery.

If you search around you’ll find orb weaver spiders, smaller than coriander seed, that by October will be the size of Concord grapes if your Carolina Wren doesn’t find them first.  You’ll find nymphs of all sorts, from leafhoppers to katydids. Some of these creatures bear no resemblance at all to the adult, but some do appear strikingly similar in form to their parents.  Caterpillars begin to munch your delicious herbs and tender leaves, and paper wasps begin to munch the caterpillars in order to feed their brood.  Nothing is safe out there. 

June brings in the “solitary” hunting wasps which have spent the last 10 months in burrows which their mothers dug for them the previous summer. Their life cycles are very similar to the mining bees I have described in a previous entry, with the notable exception of the type of provision they make for their offspring.

  The sand wasp is one of the earliest of the solitary hunting wasps to emerge, 

                                        normally around the beginning of June.  The females of this species have                                                    relatively long lives that last well into July.

These wasps emerge around the end of May and spend a few weeks eating nectar, finding mates, and maturing, after which the females settle down to the hard work of being a single mother. (For the males, this is a delirious, festive period, like spring break in Cancun, except they never make it back to class. In the insect world, this is by no means an uncommon fate for the boys of summer.) When fully matured, the females generally dig tunnels in the same area where they were born. This is normally a barren, sunny place also busy with other wasps of the same species nearby doing the exact same thing.  These animals are communal, but not social in the way paper wasps are.  Each adult is responsible for her own nest entirely.   

Not coincidentally, their arrival is timed to coincide with the maturing of the nectar-rich blossoms they require for energy, which they in turn help pollinate, and the maturing of the prey they hunt to provide for their future young.  Each type of hunting wasp recognizes only a narrow range of prey species, be it cricket, katydid or caterpillar.  You might think of these  wasps as the prom queens of pollination: beautiful, athletic, and, without knowing it, ruthless.  We will check back in on them in July when the dance is in full, mad swing.

Pollination is not something insects do on purpose. This little Eastern

bumblebee is ensuring the next generation of clover while at her task

of gathering nectar and pollen to feed herself and her growing young.

June is also the happy month that the little Eastern Bumblebees becomes your garden companions, almost like small yellow-and-black puppies. Unlike honeybees, which have armies of people and wheelbarrows full of  dollars working on their behalf, bumblebees of all types are in trouble to one degree or another due to habitat loss and chemical interference.  Most of their help comes from individuals, who garden with them in mind, together with scattered, small organizations who work on their behalf.  Bumblebees are generalists, but it’s easy to find out what flowers they prefer and all kinds of excellent information is available at the link below.  Don’t want to read any more?  Grow hyssop!  Grow salvia!  Grow sunflowers!  (Who knows, maybe the Tour de France will ride by.)   

The wonderfully named Fiery Skipper is just one of the butterflies you

can attract with just a simple, compact garden. Butterflies pick up

pollen on various parts of their anatomy and carry it on to the next 

flower they visit.

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/

Native Pollinators: Part 3 - The Merry Merry Month

Many people never think of paper wasps as pollinators, but many species are.  This is Polistes annularis, a relatively common woodland/suburban resident.  In addition to foraging for nectar, they also hunt small insects and caterpillars.

One way to think of May is that it is August in reverse.  Cinco de Mayo and cinco de Augusto are, in terms of the length of the day and the angle of the sun, equidistant from the summer solstice.  May is the final meteorological month of spring, no matter what the Julian calendar claims, and nature knows it.

Meet the Gray Bee Fly, one of May's little zooming gems.  Like many of the nectaring fly species, they are able to hover and change flight angles in seemingly impossible ways.

Those earliest bees, such as certain species of Andrena mentioned previously, have already built and provisioned their nesting tunnels and passed on.  Their progeny will now use the long warm weeks to nibble the pollen and honey cakes their mothers have prepared and left them. In this way they pass through their various larval stages and fatten themselves up for the long pupal stage and final metamorphosis. These latter transformations take place during the cold months. Every calorie required for this process is left them in those amazing honey cakes and these offspring will not see daylight for another ten months.  But Mom thought of everything.

"Variegated fritillary" is not just fun to say, it is also a real animal and a close cousin of the rock star Monarch butterfly.  The butterflies that show up in spring are the ones that spent the winter as a chrysalis.  These adults reproduce to give rise to an intermediate, summer generation.  Some butterfly species generate several "intermediates" prior to winter, though many are very long-lived as individuals.

This life-cycle story is similar for most of the solitary bees no matter when they emerge during the season, and no matter where they nest.   

From a distance, this syrphid fly resembles a honeybee.  As a defensive mechanism, many syrphid (flower) flies are amazing mimics of other species of bees and wasps, difficult to distinguish even up close.  Hard-working syrphids tend to be generalists in their nectaring habits, making them useful to many plants.

May ushers in the era of the big, long-lasting blossoms which require a good deal of light, heat and water to fuel their slow development. The myriad insects that inhabit and animate the summer also begin to emerge.  Right now is a good time to hunt around your garden for the larval forms of insects such as ladybugs.  These larva are beneficial in that they prey on the same aphids as their parents.  Bees and flies still predominate the pollination scene in May, but the paper wasps are busy crafting their durable, papyrus nurseries, and mature beetles, butterflies and moths can now begin to depend on the blossoms they require for nutrition and find the host plants they need for reproduction.  May is also an excellent time to tune up your native bee spotting and identification skills.  It’s not too hot and your garden has not yet been chewed, sawed, blighted and roasted.  It’s lovely out there.

A water source is an important constituent of any garden setting. Paper wasps need water to create their papyrus, but other insects require fresh water as well.

There are mining bees, bumble bees, sweat bees, leafcutter bees, large and small carpenter bees, cuckoo bees. mason bees, digger bees and all sorts of highly specialized bees that only nectar on specific plants.  It is neither as bewildering as it might seem and much easier than you might suspect.  If you have some native, flowering plants or a small assortment of flowering herbs such as dill, catnip, oregano, thyme or basil, you don’t need to go chasing the beautiful pollinators, let these plant bloom and they will come to you.  All you have to do then is pay a little bit of attention to when the insects show up, pull up a chair and enjoy the show.

Slow-flying butterflies are easy targets for predators such as birds, but their wings provide some defense by tearing easily without impairing the rest of the animal.  I have seen butterflies with heavy damage to both wings still managing to go about life. This is a Red-spotted Purple Swallowtail.

But really, when all is said and done, you don’t have to name them or classify them or count them or even notice them for that matter.  What matters is that you create a space where they can thrive and let them do their timeless work.  In the garden shop, look for plants that attract butterflies and bees.  And I am not a “native” absolutist by any means.  If the insects like it, it’s part of the solution. 

Not all natives, such as this stinging spurge nettle, belong in your garden, but left where they do belong they support pollinators of all sorts, such as this Palamedes Swallowtail.  The Palamedes is the most common woodland swallowtail seen throughout the spring and summer in First Landing State Park.

Guest writer: Robert Brown, LRNow Stewardship and Access Committee

Native Pollinators Part 2: The Pioneers of April

Huge grains of pine pollen cover everything for awhile in April.

The Lynnhaven watershed occupies a fortunate location where extremes of weather are rare and generally short, and flora and fauna of all varieties can count on the same conditions month in and month out, nearly every year. However, those species which emerge at the spring seasonal margin must be hardy in order to survive April’s weather fluctuations. The earliest-emerging native bees, for instance, have fur coats, reserves of stored energy and live in protective shelters. But generally speaking, by April, nature starts opening the grocery store and the wild rush of seasonal shopping gets under way.

Delicate shadbush (or Serviceberry) blossoms provide brief sustenance for pollinators such as hover flies.

Things move along quickly in April as the days lengthen and the earth warms. I kept a thumbnail list of what I saw as it appeared. So on April 1st I noticed the buds in the very tops of trees were beginning to color and quicken; on the 2nd a carpenter bee noisily inspected me; on the 3rd, a paper wasp prowled our garden; on the 5th a Prothonotary warbler, an Eastern bumblebee, and a very early, very tiny butterfly; on the 6th the first of the fleeting Shadbush blooms; on the 10th “our” Five-lined skink, a big female, came out to lounge and sun herself on the front porch; on the 15th the exotic Sweetleaf blossoms began to open and bumblebees showed up to notice; and on the 17th I saw the first dragonflies, dining on insects too small to see, as well as an early Swallowtail butterfly. 

Of course all this activity depends on the food web and that web has as its foundation the emerging stems, leaves and flowers of native plants. With rare exception, native pollinators are not attracted to non-native species. 

Though non-native, dandelions sustain a variety of insects during the chilly months, especially in suburban areas.  Here we see a pollen-laden Andrena mining-bee moving to another blossom.

By and large, April is the province of the furry bees, such as mason bees, mining bees and bumble and carpenter bees, but they have vast armies of help in the pollinating work they do. Jewel-like Syrphid flies, known collectively by names like “flower flies” and “hover flies,” begin their emergence. Paper wasps that survived the winter as adults try to find mates and begin to forage for nectar while beginning their work as master builders. There are also many types of beetles and bugs that contribute to the pollination. Almost all of these animals become active on any day the temperature reaches 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but all have strategies to cope with the variability of the April weather.

The beautiful blossoms of the Eastern Redbud attract bumblebees and other pollinators.

Some of these individuals, notably the mining bees, will spend only 6 to 8 weeks as free-roaming, working adults. Others, like the large and durable carpenter, have relatively long lives lasting for months. Collectively, these are the animals that show up when the weather is often bad, the work is difficult and life is dangerous. You have to be tough and resourceful to be an April insect.

Among the many dangers pollinators face is the presence of predators, such as this assassin bug seen here on a Common Sweetleaf bud.

Guest writer: Robert Brown, LRNow Stewardship and Access Committee

Native Pollinators, Part 1

"Charismatic mini-fauna"

It’s likely that most people reading this are familiar with the conservation issues related to the European Honeybee and the Monarch Butterfly, animals I refer to as “charismatic mini-fauna.”  Of course the honeybee is economically important to the pollination of numerous food crops as well as its honey production, and the monarchs are the bright, lilting ballet stars of summer gardens that fly thousands of miles to winter in Mexico.  These characteristics endow them with popularity and publicity, but they are not alone in the pressures they face to survive the chemically dangerous, habitat-poor environment of 2015 and beyond. Invertebrates of all types, from wasps to snails, face enormous challenges which they have no power to control. Lynnhaven River NOW was created to help restore the habitat of a very charismatic and tasty invertebrate, the Lynnhaven Oyster.  From this single idea arose an amazing web of activities that benefit animals and plants of all types throughout the watershed.

Some plants, such as pine trees, are able to pollinate using only the wind, as your soon-to-be-yellow car will attest, but the majority of plants need an agent to fill this role.  Native pollinators of all types, principally bees, wasps, beetles, flies, moths and butterflies, carry out this work in a bewildering variety of ways.  Some are specific to a single plant, some are attracted to certain plant families, and some are generalists.  Many emerge in timing with their host plant’s blooming, and live brief adult lives, while some carry on for months, even overwintering in a torpid state to start the next generation the following spring.

Mining bees (Andrena sp.) are an interesting example of pollinators timing their emergence to coincide with the arrival of the blossoms they help pollinate. Some species of these bees,
beginning in the erratic weather of late February and early March, tunnel their way out of the sandy nesting burrows dug and provisioned by their mothers the previous year, and fly up into the trees to find mates, dine and do their pollinating work.  Like most of the “solitary” bees and wasps, the life cycle of the mining bee is interesting, but obscured by the fact that up to 11 months of it are spent in burrows of different sorts.  Most people hardly know of their existence, much less how important they are.  

Buzz About Bees

It is possible, however, for you to meet many of these charming and interesting characters face to face right in your own yard.  By planting native flowering plants and herbs such as oregano and thyme and paying just a little bit of attention, you will be surprised at the new neighbors who show up for dinner.  Laney and I live in a condo, but we have managed to
create a (mostly small container) garden that attracts and supports many species of beautiful little animals.  Because of the relative environmental stability of where we live, we know that the bumblebees that visit us this summer are the offspring of the ones that visited us last summer.  That we are sustaining generation after generation is a delightful thing to think about when they start to reappear.

So just say no to impatiens!  And pesticide.  By planting natives and herbs, you will be helping in the conservation of these wonderful, colorful, and vitally important creatures.

Here are some good resources to help get you started:

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation/

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Guest writer: Robert Brown, LRNow Stewardship and Access Committee

Gardening for Pollinators

Pollinators may occasionally seem to be a bother, but please try to enjoy them and work with them--your plants (and our food crops) need them!

Pollinators come in all shapes and sizes.  The first pollinators that likely come to mind are bees. While they are great pollinators, they aren’t the only ones moving pollen around.  Other big contributors include: bats, hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths. 

Let's talk a second about what pollination is and how pollinators are moving the pollen around.

Pollination is simply the movement of pollen grains from a flower’s male part (the anther) to its female part (the stigma).  Most plants (over 75%!) depend on their relationship with pollinators to move pollen in order to make seeds and reproduce.  Since plants are the basis of most food chains, these relationships between plants and their pollinators are crucial for many life forms.  Even agriculture depends on pollinators.

The plant however, is not the only one benefiting from this relationship.  Plants produce nectar to attract pollinators which provides important nutrients and energy to pollinators.  While the pollinators are busy moving from flower to flower drinking up the plant's nectar, they are also bumping and shaking the pollen around and end up transporting pollen from flower to flower.  This is a great example of mutualism between plants and animals, a relationship where both organisms benefit.  Pollination that occurs between different plant species can create more genetic diversity and, thus can help plants to become more resistant to environmental pressures.

Native plants are critical to these pollinators! 

Planting native plants is always a good idea, but when it comes to gardening for pollinators, it is absolutely critical. Pollinators prefer native plants even though they will gather nectar from other plants as well. Native plants evolved to be pollinated by local pollinators and thrive through this relationship. In fact, many insect pollinators (like the monarch) are entirely reliant upon 1 specific host plant (milkweed, in their case).  If that specific plant is not available, the species will not survive.  This guide to "Selecting Plants for Pollinators," is a great place to find what plants are right for you: http://pollinator.org/PDFs/OuterCoastal.rx5.pdf. For instance, beetles prefer dull white or green, large bowl-like flowers that emit a fruity scent. Examples include the Pawpaw and the Magnolia.

Plants placed in large bunches rather than small clusters are more likely to attract a pollinator's eye. Also make sure to incorporate a good variety of plants, including ones that bloom at different times so as to encourage the greatest diversity of pollinators to visit your yard throughout the season. 

Another great resource for pollinator information can be found here:

http://www.fws.gov/pollinators/pdfs/PollinatorBookletFinalrevWeb.pdf

    Compiled by Clint Boaz, Intern; Edited by Trista Imrich, Pearl Homes Coordinator, LRNow