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Hi all,

I got following question today. In Belgium Apocephalus borealis is never been found before but apparently the DNA has been found inside the bees. Someone collected bees in the hope they would be infected with eggs of the fly Apocephalus borealis. Her question was, how do you rear the animals after you collected bees which could be infected? Any information would be welcome because we don't know how to start.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Dieter

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Hello Dieter,

I have pondered this question for some time, as I'd like to rear Conopids from bees.
Jens-Herman Stuke suggested catching bees and putting them in a glass container with sand on the bottom. To keep the bees alive one would feed them with sugar water.
I've had some experience keeping flies of the species Myathropa florea (Syrphidae) alive for some time with both honey and sugar water. But with honey the flies got messy as they walk right through it. The best results I got by soaking some cotton wool in sugar water. For the container I used an old aquaria. Its about 40x20x20 centimeters and housed about twenty specimens for seven days.
I have not tried keeping bees like this but coming spring I will try this with bees of the genus Andrena trying to rear Conopidae of the genus Myopa from them.
I hope this information will help you some. If you do manage to get results would you share them with me in this post or through a pm or mail?
I would be happy to share the results of my efforts of the coming spring.

Greetings,

Ectemnius

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Thanks!
Do I have to keep the container open to the air?

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Hello Dieter,

I kept, over the aquarium, a gauze with a very fine mesh. This way some fresh air came into the container. I kept the flies indoors at room temperature.
Beware, though. I raised the Myathropa from larvae. And when starting to pupate they migrate from whatever they need. Be that muck or a living bee, to a place where they deem ideal to pupate. And those full grown larvae can crawl through any seem, crack and crevasse. I found pupae across the entire room and the next room. And some I never found, except the living fly buzzing around the room some day.

Greetings,

Ectemnius