Re: Bee Coloration - conspicuous warning or camouflage?

"Pat Kiewicz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

>
> Where would they *ever* be able to search for caterpillars and the like that
> *wouldn't* be green plants?

 I agree with your observation that when Yellowjackets feed on
caterpillars, those caterpillers would needs be munching away on green
plants. But Yellowjackets can obtain protein from other sources as
well.

I found the following description of Yellowjacket behavior in the
document

www.pesticide.org/yellowjackets.pdf

"When most people think of yellow jackets, they think only of their
ability to annoy and sting. While this is definitely part of their
interactions with humans, yellowjackets are also important beneficial
insects. They pollinate flowers, eat harmful insects and their larvae
(i.e: coddling moths, flies, aphids, caterpillars),help keep leaves
free of honeydew which can encourage fungi and ants, keep rotting
corpses cleaned up, and possibly discourage field mice from living
nearby."

If a Yellowjacket colony were obtaining its needed protein
from any of the following sources:

1. coddling moths, flies, aphids, and their larvae
2. rotting corpses

It would seem reasonable that one of more of such sources would not
necessarily be associated with green plants. For example, fly larvae
would be associated with rotting corpses.  I am not familiar, however,
with the life cycles of either coddling moths or aphids.

>
> Why then are there so many conspicuously colored stinging insects
>  -- and so many harmless imitators?  How do you explain moths and beetles 
> that imitate bees and wasps?  
> Aren't they taking advantage of the wasp's reputation for stinging?
>


 I mentioned in a previous post a reference I found that stated that
Yellowjackets "serve as food for bears, skunks, birds, and other
insects."

I think that it is fair to assume that bears and skunks attack the
nests, not individual insects. But birds and other insects that prey
upon  Yellowjackets would not, I should think, be "put off" by the
Yellowjacket's striking black and yellow coloration, but would in fact
recognize the coloration  as identifying a potential meal.


  --- Bill Angel
       Silver Spring, Maryland