When will my leafcutter bees emerge?

When your leafcutter bees arrives, the leafcutter bees have been conditioned at room temperature and pre-incubated for around 14 days. What happens next?

Many of our customers have started their new hobby with these great little summer pollinators.  But it was not clear how long these bees needed to develop into adults and emerge in the summer.  We heard of people throwing them out, cutting them open and finding  a fleshy grub that does not look at all like a bee!

Here are the facts.  Under laboratory conditions and inside an incubator at 30C, bee pupae need 21-30 days to emerge as adults!

This is a long time!  This means that under normal conditions (and about half the time it is night and temperatures are cooler)  the emergence time is much longer than 21-30 days.  Under any natural conditions, emergence is more like 30-50+ days.  They say ‘Patience is a virtue’!

1. At BeeGAP the leafcutter bees are kept at a temperature between +1C and +5C. Within this temperature range the leafcutter bees are in sustained dormancy. Before dispatch we bring them to room temperature (conditioning) for a few days before pre-incubating them for around 14 days are in this pre-incubated state upon shipping and arrival to your doorstep.
   
   
2. Incubation and Metamorphosis:
   
   
   • Incubation is initiated when the temperature of the leafcutter bee goes above 15C for a sustained period of time.
   • Incubation can be done artificially by keeping the bees inside an incubator until adult bees emerge.
   • Incubation may also be done naturally by placing the bees outside when the minimum temperature is above freezing (0C) and daytime temperatures reach +20C.
   • Metamorphosis is the change from larvae to adult bee. Briefly, the larvae will change shape, develop legs, a head, thorax and abdomen. Next the eyes will turn pink, then red and finally darken to black (female) or green (male).
   • Once the eyes have darkened the body colour deepens.
   • This process typically take up to 50 days, but can occasionally take an extra few weeks is the weather conditions have been poor, cold or rainy. Don't panic if this is the case!
     
     
3. The bees finally reach maturity with fully developed wings, eyes, claws, antenna, hair, etc and are ready to emerge.
   
   
   • Cutting their way out of their cocoon with their mandibles, the new adults emerge. At this stage they are ready to fly into the world to find food in the form of nectar and pollen. This food gives them enough energy to grow just a bit more. The new bees will find shelter in the empty holes of your BeeHome.
     
     
4. Leaf cutter bees mate soon after emergence. They join tail to tail and mating is complete.
   
   
5. A male leafcutter bee’s main purpose is to fertilise females. Once this task is complete they soon die.
   
   
6. Female bees live 5 to 8 weeks. In this time they collect food and leaf material to make cells. An egg is laid in each cell and she may create up to 20 cells with eggs. Females are only 33% of the population so you need three larvae to replace one female bee.
   
   
7. In a short time the females fly their wings off and die. The two generations only coexist for a short time.
   
   
8. The new egg hatches as a larva to find a large cache of pollen and nectar paste, which is the true start to a generation.
   
   
   • The bee larvae eats the food paste and grows for approximately 20 days, eventually consuming all its food source.
   • After a short time without food the larvae knows it is time to spin a silk cocoon inside the cell which now only contains a larvae.
   • The silk cocoon is a marvel unto itself, being waterproof and semipermeable to gasses.

The complexity of leafcutter bees is a marvel of creation. Raising Leafcutter bees is your opportunity to witness these amazing creatures first hand and up close.