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Butterfly Garden

bees attacking swallowtails

16 years ago

In the last 2 days I have witnessed something I have never seen before....bumblebees semmingly attacking yellow tiger swallowtail butteflies. Yesterday, I was at my garden, where I have many butterfly bushes, bee balm, etc. We've has lots of butterlies appearing in the past 2 weeks....mostly swallowtails and now some monarchs. From a distance, I saw a swallowtail flying up and down, close to the ground, landing, then rising up, fluttering, going back down to the ground. I went over to it and saw that a bumblebee was on the butterfly's body! I tried to cup my hands over the butterfly, and when I did, the bee flew off and the butterfly flew away. Today, the same scenario played out...except this time the butterfly did not fly away. He flopped around for a minute or two and then died. Has anyone ever heard of this type of behavior from bees before? I find this very upsetting. I go to the garden for enoyment and this type of interaction is not very peaceful or calming! Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Comments (3)

MissSherry
16 years ago
My garden is teeming with bees of all types, and I've NEVER seen this happen! How terrible! Could this have been one of those 'killer bees'?
I'm SO sorry about the swallowtail!
MissSherry
jmcat
16 years ago
It doesn't sound like a bee to me. It could be an insect that paralyzes and then eats other insects, like we have had. That one goes after honeybees, though.
-Jmcat
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bigthicketgardens
16 years ago
Wow, that is unusual, and very uncharacteristic of a bumblebee. I have seen bumblebees give a little half a second chase after a butterfly before, but never actually make contact.

Nature is survival of the fittest when things get scarce or crowded.

Let us know if you see something like this happen again.

Could it have been a robber fly?

Here is a link that might be useful: Robber Fly with striped abdomen

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