The Macropis Cuckoo Bee is a very rare North American bee. Part of what makes it so rare is that it needs a very specific environment in which to thrive. It gets its name Cuckoo from the bird because just like the bird, the Macropis Cuckoo Bee uses other species’ nests in which to lay its eggs and propagate its own species. According to Eureka Science, it was a species thought to be extinct until it appeared in Nova Scotia in the early 2000s and was added to Canada’s endangered species list. A new set of findings has added more hope to this wily species’ ability to thrive with little.
Scientists Dr Cory S Sheffield, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Canada, who was the one to rediscover the "extinct" species in Nova Scotia, and Jennifer Heron, British Columbia Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy, present their new data, and discuss the conservation status of this species in their paper, published in the open access journal Biodiversity Data Journal.
"This species has a very interesting biology," they say, "being a nest parasite - or cuckoo - of another group of bees that in turn have very specialized dietary needs."
The hosts, bees of the genus Macropis (which themselves are quite rare) are entirely dependent on plants of the primrose genus Lysimachia. Moreover, they only go after those Lysimachia species whose flowers produce oil droplets, which the insects collect and feed to their larvae. Thus, Macropis bees require these oil-producing flowers to exist just like Macropis Cuckoo Bees need their hosts and their nests. Curiously, this reliance, as suggested by previous studies on related European species, has made the female cuckoos develop the ability to find their host's nests by the smell of the floral oils.
They believe that the newest findings show that the Macropis are more spread out and more abundant than previously thought. That’s the good news. The scientists hope that this research will drive home how important it is to continue to monitor rare and endangered species.