Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings: Personal observations on a wide variety of subjects. Photographs of creatures and things that are taken on seeing the unusual as well as everyday things.

War of the worlds

I have often read about the occasional rogue male elephant or other animals that split from their groups to go on and become violent and aggressive. It was still a shock to see something similar to this in my Leaf-cutter bees. A rogue has emerged. Here it is -

Rogue Leaf-cutter bee

Rogue Leaf-cutter bee on Insect House

Rogue Leaf-cutter bee

The first time that I saw this rogue, I was hanging washing on the line. My washing line is just a few feet away from the Insect House. The bee appeared to be acting differently than the other bees. It was hanging about – kept landing and resting – then as soon as another bee returned with either a piece of leaf or with the intent of cleaning another chamber, up it would fly and then drop like a lead weight on top of the industrious bee.

I dived in to get my camera and managed to capture some of the attacks …

Leaf-cutter bee attack1

Leaf-cutter bee attack2

Leaf-cutter bee attack3    Leaf-cutter bee attack4

New attack Leaf-cutter bee1

New attack Leaf-cutter bee2

New attack Leaf-cutter bee3 frenzied roll

I thought at first that the result would be the death of one of the bees but this was a wrestling fight where one or other of the bees would strive to get on top. Each fight took several minutes and I was tempted to intervene. The aggressive bee is a slightly lighter colour than his counterparts. He may be a rogue from the same nest group or he may indeed be from a different Leaf-cutter colony. His sole intent appeared to be to stop the other bees from working. As battle after battle kept happening like war of the worlds I am left wondering why?

1 comment:

JaviZ said...

I dropped here by accident, but I'm sure I'll be back since you have great posts! :)

Warmly,
Javier Echaiz (your newest Follower)