Photo: Spring Beauty Mining Bee, Judy Gallagher
Judy Gallagher is an ASNV board member and a regular surveyor of local wildlife who also captures photos of what she sees, in particular the less common species. Here are some observations from her most recent survey.
Spring Beauties, Judy Gallagher
You may have recently noticed patches of Spring Beauties carpeting large areas in or near the edges of woods. Their flowers range from white through various shades of pink
Spring Beauty Mining Bee, Andrena erigeniae, Judy Gallagher
Plants and their pollinators have a mutualistic relationship. The pollinator acquires food in the form of nectar and pollen, and the plant benefits by having its pollen transferred to another plant, allowing it to reproduce. As I mentioned in last month's column about Mining Bees, many Mining Bee species only obtain pollen from one plant species, and their pollen-collecting structures are designed for the specific type of pollen they collect. Spring Beauties are primarily pollinated by the Spring Beauty Mining Bee, Andrena erigeniae, and Spring Beauty Mining Bees almost exclusively nectar on Spring Beauties.
Spring Beauty Mining Bee, Andrena erigeniae, Judy Gallagher
Spring Beauty flowers open when the temperature exceeds 52 degrees F., and the Spring Beauty Mining Bee flies when temperatures exceed 55 degrees F. The flower only opens when the temperatures are likely to support its pollinators.
Female bees collect pollen to store in burrows to support their larvae. They make between three and five trips to collect enough pollen to make into a pollen ball to support one larva. They lay multiple eggs, so gathering pollen for the entire brood is a lot of work. As you can see in this picture, Spring Beauty pollen is pink.
Dance Fly, Judy Gallagher
Some flies also pollinate Spring Beauties. You can see the pollen on the abdomen of this Dance Fly.
White-M Hairstreak, Judy Gallagher
Other species nectar on Spring Beauties, but they are not important pollinators, for instance, this White-M Hairstreak.
Ant with Spring Beauty elaiosome, Jim Gallagher
Insects also help disperse the seeds. Spring Beauty seeds have a small fleshy body attached, called an eliaosome, which ants really like. They carry the seeds back to their nests, consume the eliaosome and discard the seed. This means that the seed is dispersed some distance from the parent plant.
Plants and insects have many interactions. Nature's world is complex
View all of Judy’s Observations from Meadowood articles here.