At present, a total of 3 species of bee colonies have been found in China, namely Si's bee cocoon bee, wax borer cocoon bee, wax borer concave head wasp, and now the first two have been introduced, and this wax borer concave head wasp naturally has to keep up.
Wax borer concave-headed wasps, like wax borer cocoon bees, are parasitic bees of parasitic wax borer larvae (that is, nest worms), which can be said to be a big helper for our biological control of nest worms, but there is a problem here that deserves attention and careful investigation.
When I was collecting the Si's bee cocoon bee, there was a literature introducing the Si's bee cocoon bee, which had a picture in it, and the picture was as follows:
A
The author of the article said that Figure 1 is a Si's bee cocoon bee, but beekeepers who have read the previous article should know that the Si's bee cocoon bee is not the appearance of Figure 1 above, but as follows:
The difference in the posture of these two types of bees is still relatively large, and naturally there is no difference between male and female.
Compare the comparison charts of the three species of parasitic bees in The hive in China:
B
From this point of view, it is not difficult to find that the wax borer in Figure 1 is actually a wax borer concave-headed wasp.
According to the original author's statement in the literature, he really encountered a colony of parasitic bees, and after 5 years of observation and research and control experiments. Then there are several possibilities for wax borer concave-headed wasps as a literature illustration:
First, the author's experiment focused on prevention and control, and did not incubate the larvae in the bee body, observed into a bee shape, and the corresponding literature content was consulted less, so the wax borer concave-headed wasp wasp was mistakenly used as a picture of the Si's bee cocoon bee, and introduced the form on this basis.
The second is that after the author hatches the larvae in the bee, the adult bee that comes out is the wax borer concave head wasp, but at present, the bee parasitic bee in China is only the Si's bee cocoon bee, so the wax borer concave head wasp is mistakenly called the Si's bee cocoon bee.
If it is the former, it can only be said that the literature content is not rigorous, if it is the latter, it will attract our attention, that is, the wax borer concave-headed wasp will also parasitize bees!
Because I am not sure about the specific circumstances of the author's writing, I will introduce it in a relatively agreeable statement.
Wax borer concave-headed wasps, also known as wax borer bees, can be active in the hive all year round, parasitizing nests, with a parasitic rate of 70%, which can prevent and control most of the harmful nest insects.
Because the wax borer concave-headed wasp is small (from the A figure, minus the antennae, the length is 7 mm), it is not easy to attract attention, and the general beekeeper will not specifically recognize the names of these small bugs, so there is no more detailed content in the beekeeper forum. Only the following two pictures of bee friends found that the bugs in the box took a photo, the comparison can confirm that it is a wax borer concave head wasp, you can save the picture as the basis for subsequent identification.
Then there is a literature mentioning that the swarm of wax borer concave-headed wasps will have a situation where the swarm cannot grow into a strong swarm, so it is recommended to hunt in time if found. It is also mentioned that no bee larvae in the parasitism of wax borer concave-headed wasps have been found, but it is uncertain whether they will parasitize bees at other growth stages and need to be further observed.
Judging from the content collected comprehensively, it is still recommended to directly culling the wax borer concave-headed wasp, after all, it is impossible to confirm whether it will parasitize bees, and can only temporarily follow the principle of preferring to kill by mistake.
Of course, if you happen to meet, but also happen to have the idea of exploration, you can catch a few bees and wax borer concave head wasps in a transparent box to raise for a period of time, just observe whether it will parasitize bees, bees will hatch larvae after death, you can tell the truth.
Article source: Dr. Bee APP