Mason Bee

Discuss natural history subjects not strictly related to birds. Reports of interesting mammal, reptile, and invertebrate sightings are welcome.
flossiepip
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:27 pm

Mason Bee

Postby flossiepip » Mon Feb 26, 2018 7:06 pm

Seems to of been a plague of Mason Bees in and around the house this year. Found one in my camera bag side flap and I use that camera most days! Then we sat down to watch a dvd opened the case and there was another one. This time the mud tube came apart and the number of Orb web spiders was amazing, all colours too! We put the case in a dark room and left, don't know if the grubs will survive but there is still plenty of spiders to go at.
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Colin Miskelly
Posts: 912
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:31 pm

Re: Mason Bee

Postby Colin Miskelly » Mon Feb 26, 2018 8:15 pm

Great images!

My spider knowledge is rather patchy, but I suspect that the green one will be a thomisid (crab-spider)

Cheers
Colin
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David Riddell
Posts: 961
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:46 pm

Re: Mason Bee

Postby David Riddell » Mon Feb 26, 2018 9:14 pm

And I think that's a dewdrop spider (Argyrodes antipodianus) bottom left in the third photo - they're kleptoparasites (like skuas) that lurk on webs of other spiders, particularly orbwebs, stealing their prey. Birds mostly ignore them because they look like dewdrops. Excellent second shot also clearly showing a mason bee egg, with a larva no doubt inside ready to emerge and eat the spider alive! We have heaps of mason bees around here too, but then we usually do.
Olwen
Posts: 247
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:14 am

Re: Mason Bee

Postby Olwen » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:06 am

So industrious, these masons.

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