lithurgus crysurus, an exotic carpenter bee

Exotic carpenter bee at Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Slatington, PA

Lithurgus chrysurus

Anita M. Collins, Ph.D., USDA ARS retired, USGS collaboratorDan Kunkle, Executive Director, LGNC

History

In 1970, a large number of Lithurgus chrysurus, a Mediterranean carpenter bee, were found in Phillipsburg, NJ. In the process of nesting, they had eaten a man’s porch and siding. So of course, they were exterminated.

Except…..

Recent history On July 7, 2007,about 20 miles as the bee

flies west of the original find… during bowl trapping of native bees at

Lehigh Gap Nature Center, the Young Naturalists found a single bee that looked like this.

Photos by AMCollins

40º47’ 01 N; 75º36’ 32 W

Pause for identification

Sam Droege got excited, and went looking for more,

we at Lehigh Gap all got excited, and PA Dept. of Ag., Rick Donovall, and

friends ran over to check things out.

Some individuals were found in northern NJ and central eastern PA, on spotted knapweed, (Centaurea maculosa) their preferred host, primarily along railroad right of way.

Five years later. Anita had given a talk on native bees at

LGNC.

A Young Naturalist, Corey Husic, was training some volunteers to pin bees.

An LGNC member brought in a few bees from her back yard to find out what they were.

Corey recognized the bee!

Photos by Corey Husic, 2012

At Lehigh Gap Nature CenterRecent finds pinned

Nesting site found! A small expedition was organized to visit the nest site in

Slatington, PA, across the Lehigh River from LGNC. Similar cast of characters. Aug 8, 2012.

Following photos by Dan Kunkle, LGNC

Meet a live L. crysurus

Home owner had two piles of firewood, both occupied, one less than other.

Said they started seeing lots of flying bees mid July.

As we were standing in flight line, about a dozen bees piled up in front of the woodpile.

Noticeable amounts of sawdust along bottom of pile and stuck to underside of tarp.

See arrows next photo. Circle is nest entrance.

Old pile of oak firewood

Small log with red circle was opened to expose nest tunnels and some larvae.

Same log another view.

Another log with nest entrances.

Lower nest entrance, same log.

Close up of entrance. Note bee just inside.

Future We did collect several of the inhabited

logs. They will be dissected and results added

to this slide show shortly.