Jacques Hausser in Switzerland (the World’s Happiest Country) sent some lovely insect photos and one mountainscape. The beetle he shows has a truly bizarre life history, so do read about it below:
Recently (December 26) Mark Sturtevant showed us a very strange Coleopteran with a very strange life cycle, Rhipiphorus. Here is another one, Stenoria analis, family Meloidae [“blister beetles”], which shows an even more complicated kleptoparasitic life cycle:
1) The female lays her eggs on plants.
2) After two weeks, the larvae (called triungulins) hatch, but remain closely packed together (although they are highly mobile). Their work: producing bee’s sexual pheromones to deceive males of solitary bees, usually Colletes hederae. When a drone lands on the heap of triungulins, the little larvae quickly jump on the bee and cling on its hairs.
Here’s a photo of the aggregated tiungulins that I [JAC] took from flickr:
3) When the male finds a real female and attempts to copulate, the triungulins transfer themselves on the female – and so they are carried to her nest.
I found a photo (from a paper by Veerecken and Mahe) showing a bee flying toward a larval swarm (8) and trying to copulate with it (9), whereupon the triungulins jump on the bee:
4) In the nest, the triungulins install themselves in a cell, and wait until it is filled with honey; then the bee’s egg is deposited and the cell is closed.
5) They eat the egg and moult several times, transforming themselves in a kind of white grub, slowly growing on the honey and finally producing a nymph that will hatch next september. This process is called hypermetamorphosis and is well illustrated for another species here.
The triungulins who didn’t have the opportunity to attract a drone will form a “drop” of individuals mixed with silk. The drop will ultimately fall on the soil and the little larvae, apparently, will look for a second chance, tiny pedestrians walking around to find a suitable bee nest by themselves.
An adult Stenoria:
Female laying eggs on a dry Armeria maritima:
Another one on a Festuca:
I met Stenoria on Sark Island (C.I.) in the beginning of September, on a bank of loess riddled with solitary bees’ holes. But I didn’t see any Colletes [a ground-nesting bee]: the active bees were mostly Dasypoda hirtipes (here a female). Perhaps the Colletes were present, but didn’t hatch yet – or Stenoria is more euryoecious than described in the books.
And a lagniappe: Sunset on the Mont-Blanc seen from my home yesterday evening [Jan. 27] (with a F100 tele, it is actually 80 km away):
Reader Jim Thompson sent some mountain goat photos (we had some a few days ago, but you can’t see enough of these noble beasts). The species is Oreamnos americanus. Jim’s notes:
Curious goats following me up Maroon Peak in Colorado a few years ago.
There are some really tame ones on summit of Evans. There is a road up to very near the summit and there are public restrooms there; the goats just hang out for handouts. Somtimes you have to shoo them away to get into the restrooms.
Jacques, what an amazing story! Do you know the evolutionary path that led to this?
Also, the adult looks like it is imitating a pompilid wasp, eg
http://www.britannica.com/animal/spider-wasp
Jacques, I see that the picture I linked to is credited to “Jacques Six”. Maybe that’s a nom de plum of yours?
No, that’s not me… he is apparently a professional nature photographer, and a good one. As for the evolutionary path leading to such a complicated life history, I don’t know, being basically a mammalogist. Actually, I started to photography insects after my retirement because I was a complete ignoramus in entomology – a good way to learn!
I agree with you for the Pompilid look of Stenoria, but contrary to real Pompilid they seemed slow and clumsy.
I’m loving these photos with a back story – it makes them even better.
Given that the Swiss are so much happier in general than the average USian, I wonder what USians think of the high level of government regulation in Switzerland? Especially, as the focus is currently there, the “live free or die” state of New Hampshire, where so many are actually dying of drug overdoses.
Fascinating story, Jacques! It is interesting that there are different Coleopteran families with complicated parasitic lifestyles. If I again come across my Rhipiphorid laying eggs, I will try to collect them to see their mobile larvae.
Very interesting. Thanks
Mountain goats need salt and one way they get it is by finding where other large mammals have urinated, and licking the ground there.
Once when we were hiking in the back-country in the Selkirk range in BC there were goats there (but no human toilet facilities), and they followed us around, eyeing us accusingly. When we sat down for lunch they circled us the whole time!
Interesting. 🙂 Do they need more salt than other ruminants, or is it a matter of habitat? Or is it normal behavior in browsers/grazers?
Magnificent photo of Mt Blanc, that seems a remarkably clear day (though I only know the area from 3 or 4 days visit). That’s the Chamonix side, I think (would have to be if it’s taken from Switzerland). Wild guess that it’s taken from around Leysin or vicinity.
I have a shot of the opposite side from above Bourg St-Maurice, but not nearly such a clear day (or such a good lens, either). You do have to get away from it to appreciate the height, from Chamonix everything’s foreshortened and it hides behind the aiguilles.
cr
Fascinating pictures and story, Jacques! Very cool that you caught the two egg-laying incidents.
Imagine being the scientist(s) figuring out a life style like this with all those different larval stages.