1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Hello, my name's Lindsay Turnbull and I'm an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000 at the University of Oxford, and we're right in the middle of this very serious corona virus crisis right 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:15,000 now. And my students are all stuck at home and we want to keep them in touch with biology 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:21,000 and keep in touch with us. And so we're going to make a new series of videos and they're going to be called back garden 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:46,000 biology. 6 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Hello, welcome to this week's episode of that garden biology. But down the far end of the garden 7 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,000 today, starting anyway and in the patch of cowslips, that's how I showed you in the very first 8 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:01,000 episode. But we're not looking at the plants themselves this time. We're looking at something that's been going on 9 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:06,000 in the law, frankly, has been some funny events going on in the slow, not been trying to unravel 10 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,000 what's been happening. I have to take my garden, as most gardeners do. I 11 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:17,000 try to take my garden as a little as possible because I have heavy clay soil, which 12 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:22,000 in the winter is impossible to take because it's completely waterlogged is like digging into a big bowl of solid clay, 13 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,000 which you just can't do. A man, as soon as it starts to get hot and dry, it turns into concrete. 14 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:32,000 So digging is extremely hard work. So I'm always admiring of any animals that 15 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:38,000 can dig with ease in this soil. And that's what I've found out here. So 16 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:44,000 these cowslips were grown by my mother. She sewed some seeds last autumn 17 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,000 and she gave me this tray of young plants and I created some spaces for them, pushed aside 18 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000 the grass and plop popped in these little plugs of soil, little realising that was making 19 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:59,000 it a little bit easier for some animals that like to dig to find their way. And I want to show you 20 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:05,000 what one of them's been doing. Just going to lift aside this cancelable leaf. My cameraman 21 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,000 is going to come in and show you this little hole and you can see there's the soil 22 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:19,000 mound at around the side and a sizeable hole in the middle. 23 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Now, there's a few of those around this law, the Open appearing over the last couple of weeks, I could find at least 24 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:29,000 five or six of them perhaps, and you may have even more in your law. And if you look carefully 25 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:35,000 so and I just saw its inhabitants leave as we literally 26 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:40,000 spoke. But I've been flirting out, staking out these halls, trying to find 27 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000 out who's in there. And that's what we're going to be talking about this week. Every good stakeout 28 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,000 starts with a location. And this is ours. A little hole in the lawn. You can see the pile of soil 29 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:55,000 around it. And who exactly has made it? Well, our first guest was this little 30 00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:00,000 Dave sunning itself on a leaf at the back of the garden. And thanks to my colleagues, Tony, Alanda, 31 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,000 Liam Crowley, we think that this is a Hawthorne mining bee. And you see on the back 32 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:11,000 of her legs there, that's almost has to collect pollen to provision her. Yeah. 33 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:16,000 So we staked out the lawn to see if we could see her in action. And sure enough, coming out of 34 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:21,000 there, Law Man does appear to be a hopeful mining bee. But we can't really 35 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 be confident about that because this isn't a terribly good shot. And so she flies away, 36 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,000 leaving us a little bit, none the wiser. A few minutes later, this appeared. Now 37 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:36,000 face looks like a wasp. She then landed and we were able to get better 38 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,000 shots of her right by the hole under the cowslips. And she is not a wasp. She 39 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,000 is actually a type of bee. And she is called a nomad bee. And we think that this 40 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:51,000 particular species is Gooden's nomad bee. She's mimicking a wasp for her 41 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:57,000 own protection. And what she's going to do is go into the hole made by the mining bee 42 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:02,000 and she's going to lay her eggs in there. And when her larvae emerge, they're going to eat the food supply. 43 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,000 And indeed, the larvae of the mining bee. So these things generally are sometimes called brood 44 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,000 parasites or cuckoo bees. This is the unfortunate victim. So 45 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000 this is the grey patched mining bee, Andrina Nitta down. We have a really nice clear shot 46 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:22,000 of her here. You can see the little grey patches. So we're quite confident about the species here. And 47 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:28,000 we know that Gooden's name, Abbie, does indeed parasitise Andrina and it's at her 48 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:33,000 say we're quite confident about both of these ideas. And as if she didn't have enough to worry 49 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,000 about here, the bee flies again. This is a mating pair, which I managed to catch on film. 50 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:43,000 The female bee fly also patrols the lawn over the mining business, and she flicks 51 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:49,000 her eggs into the mines. And her larvae will also imagine the food and the larvae 52 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:54,000 of the bees. So it really is a baby world out there. So we have a lots of fun 53 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:00,000 staking out the bees about we're making those holes in the law and finding out who was who, who the original 54 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:05,000 occupant was, and then learning that that second WASP bee, it was actually 55 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:10,000 a parasite taking advantage of the original occupant. If you want to try to 56 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:15,000 identify insects, it is daunting because they're such a big, diverse group. But I really 57 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:20,000 recommend this book. It's called A Comprehensive Guide to Insects of Britain and 58 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,000 Ireland. It's by a guy called Paul D. Brock. I don't know him. I don't think he's anything to do with Oxford. 59 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:30,000 It's not an Oxford University Press book, but it is a brilliant book and it has revolutionised 60 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:36,000 my ability to identify insects. I was never very good at it. But with this book, I just feel a lot more confident 61 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:41,000 if we just open it out in a random place. You'll see every page is covered with these 62 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:47,000 fantastic full colour pictures. He must have taken years to getting all these pictures 63 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:52,000 together. There's a bit of a description of the species and a little map showing you where 64 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:57,000 it occurs in Britain. And that's really important if you're convinced you've seen something 65 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,000 that you live in Oxfordshire and that is only occurs in the far north of Scotland and it's probably not what 66 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:07,000 you've seen. There's also lots of good stuff online, of course, but this is a really great start. 67 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:13,000 Okay, so we had a look at mining these earlier. They are solitary 68 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:18,000 bees, generally speaking, solitary anyway, that make those holes in the lawn, dig out these brood 69 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:23,000 chambers. But there are other solitary bees that make their nests in other places. And you might be even more 70 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:29,000 familiar with those because perhaps in your garden you've got one of these. 71 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 This is a bee hotel. You can make them yourself or you can buy them. Or in this 72 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:39,000 case, I was actually given this Bee Hotel and you can see there are pipes, bits 73 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000 of bamboo with hollow centres and Bouzar to attract a different type of solitary bee generally 74 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:50,000 called mason bees. So Mason bees make their whole make their nests in soft 75 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:56,000 mortar. So if you have an old war, you might see them nesting in there. You certainly have them in the college. 76 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:02,000 You can also get leafcutter bees using those homes. Those are bees that cut 77 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000 little semicircles out of the edges of leaves. Roses are one of their favourites. At least one of the common species 78 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:13,000 likes to do that. So don't be alarmed. If you see that happening, they're not going to really damage your plant. 79 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:18,000 And they plug they use those leaves to plug the entrance to. The individual brute cells and to 80 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:23,000 seal off the chamber at the very end to stop other bees from entering because we see 81 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,000 how they do get parasitised others, the Mason bees tend to use mud to block 82 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:33,000 the chamber. And that's one way that you can help to identify what you've got. What materials are they using 83 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:39,000 to plug up the holes? Too early for that and might be hurt. Although someone's 84 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:44,000 visiting and showing an interest. But take a look at my mum and dad's BHL. 85 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:49,000 This is attached to their back wall where they've always had mason bees. And you can see 86 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:54,000 that it is an all out frenzy there with bees battling to get into the tubes. And indeed, 87 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:59,000 my dad said they barely seem to do anything other than fight one another. So I'm not sure what species 88 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:04,000 that is, but I don't think I've ever seen a bee her tail with quite so many days. So pretty impressive 89 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,000 data, I have to say. So it will end where we began back in this patch where I know the mining bees 90 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:15,000 are busy. And it's amazing to think that there are hundreds of bee species in Britain, 91 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:20,000 around 250 different bee species in Britain. The vast majority of those most 92 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:25,000 of us probably never realise wherever seeing they're small. Much smaller than 93 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:30,000 than honeybees or bumblebees. So they kind of go under the radar, but they're actually really important 94 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,000 pollinators. So, for example, at this time of year where, as we've seen, the bumblebees are not very active 95 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,000 yet, it's only the queens out and about a lot of the pollination that's going on now is being carried out 96 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:46,000 by those solitary bees. They go on all through the year. There are species that come out early, 97 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:51,000 species that come out later, and they are important. And if you can grow flowers that attract 98 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:56,000 those kinds of bees and put up a bee hotel and just leave them alone in your lawn. When I was looking up 99 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:01,000 some of the stuff online, I could see there were also, you know, people Googling, how do I get rid of 100 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:07,000 these and my lawn? Well, can I suggest you don't need to get rid of them? It's true that those solitary 101 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:12,000 bees can sting, but very, very rarely. And if you were unlucky enough to be stung by one, 102 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:17,000 it's nothing like as painful as a honey bee sting or a wasp sting. So it's a very, 103 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:22,000 very mild sting. Obviously, if you're allergic to bee stings, then you have to be even more careful. But for most 104 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:27,000 of us, if you're not, then really these things don't pose any threat to you at all. So I hope 105 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:32,000 you can have a wander around your garden and find some bees making homes in unexpected 106 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:43,760 places.