Though my “bee-career” began with floral ecology, cleptoparasites very soon got my attention. For my master thesis I examined the associated species found in nests of the Red Mason Bee, Osmia bicornis (in that times still O. rufa). I had tried another subject before (still with bees) but did not succeed much in it. In…
Two days ago I had a big surprise in the garden of the CREA-API in Bologna: I met my first Megachile sculpturalis, a really giant bee: they become up to 25 mm long. Some of the specimens I see downstairs look even bigger to me, but this may be an impression. First, I was quite…
Reading about a healthy and persistent wild bee population in the USA resisting also varroa infestation made me think of the original host of the varroa mite, the Eastern honeybee Apis cerana. For my PhD, I studied the fertility regulation of Varroa destructor. As the mites do not reproduce in the worker brood of their…
My “bee career” began with bumblebees. It was in a course of evolutionary ecology at the university; together with another student I observed different bumblebee species on different flowers in the garden of the faculty. We noticed that some bumblebee species fly on open, more disc-shaped flowers, while other species preferred flowers with long corollas…
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