BUMBLE BEE'S NIGHTMARE: 'BEFORE YOU DIG YOUR GRAVE, I WILL EAT YOU FROM INSIDE
A conopid fly (Physocephala tibialis) larva is a parasite that you can see only through a microscope. An adult conopid fly lies in wait near flowers for its victim—the bumblebee.
When a bee approaches, the conopid fly attacks the bee in midair and tackles it to the ground. The conopid implants an egg in the bee’s body. The egg hatches and starts eating the bee from inside.
The fat stores stop providing energy for the bee and become food for the parasite. Bit by bit the fly larva consumes the bee’s internal tissues. The bee becomes the larva’s home and source of nutrition.
The drama continues inside the bee for about 10 days. Eventually, the bee's energy stores are exhausted and it falls to the ground. For some unknown reason, the bee digs itself into the ground before it dies as if preparing to hibernate during winter.
The bee uses its legs to dig its own grave. But the fly does not die. It hibernates inside its prey and waits for springtime. An adult conopid fly emerges from the bee’s carcass like an insect shedding off pupal skin and flies away, ready to continue the cycle.
Dr. Rosemary Malfi, a post-doctoral student at the University of California-Davis, first observed conopid fly larva inside bees when dissecting bees for her undergraduate studies. She identified conopid in bee specimens from 12 different places. She found that a third of bees sampled had conopids living inside them.
Malfi theorizes that the conopid parasitoid takes control of the worker bee's brain so that it acts as if it is preparing to hibernate for winter. No one knows how the parasite forces the bee to dig a grave and bury itself, before succumbing to its fate.
Malfi is an expert on the conopid-bumble bee relationship. She says that research into bumble bee populations is critical as many species are declining. However, conopid flies are natural enemies to bumblebees but not a danger to their existence.
The biggest threat is from human activity such as pesticide exposure, habitat loss, and adverse agricultural practices. Bumblebees are responsible for the pollination of eggplants, tomatoes, and blueberries, among others.
Malfi affixes RFID chips on the bee's thorax. The technology helps her to trace the bees as the forage and provides valuable information about their movements from season to season.
The conopid song ‘Before You Dig Your Own Grave, I will Eat You from Inside’ was, is and will continue into the future. However, it is unlikely to be a death blow to bumble bees.
Dr. Malfi published her findings on October 23, 2018.
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Conopid flies also wait at flowers and as a bumblebee lands on the flower, the conopid launches itself onto the back of the bumblebee and expertly inserts a single egg inside the bumblebee’s body, with her razor sharp ovipositor. Soon the egg hatches and consumes the bumblebee from the inside, eventually killing the bee, whose corpse then becomes the flies coffin inside of which it spends the winter months, to emerge next summer.
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I never got to eat my Pringles: Okay, so this was in fourth grade, and I was in this class with all these dumbass kids. Here’s the back story: My parents usually pack me fruit for a snack, but on this day they packed me like half of the leftover Pringles from the day before, you know, in that cylinder container. I was really excited since I LOVE PRINGLES. But when recess came around so I could take MY Pringles and go eat it outside, they weren’t in my bag. I started scoping the area, trying to find my Pringles. I call the teacher, she tries to find them but she can’t either. Than this thought comes to my mind—What if MOIRA STOLE IT? Moira was this chubby girl in my class that literally ALWAYS wore this purple princess dress that should be classified as a bad Halloween costume (seriously) and was known for being a bitch. Being the judgmental 9-10 year old I was, I straight out concluded that she must’ve stolen my damn Pringles. I just tell my teacher, “Well too bad, I’ll just go out for recess now. It was just PRINGLES.” Being a little angel. So I stomp out of the class and start searching for Moira. I’m talking checking areas, finding witnesses, wasting my time. So after a solid 10 minutes, I find a group of these kids crowded at the side of one of the portable classrooms. I rush over to see what it is. The kids were eating Pringles. Barbecue flavored Pringles. MY PRINGLES. I start raging as I smack the Pringles out of the kids’ hands and start ripping people away from the main source. And in the middle of all the kids, sat a smug looking MOIRA with my PRINGLES. I look all mad and rip the BLOODY EMPTY CONTAINER OF PRINGLES OUT OF THE DAMN BITCH’S FILTHY HANDS. By now even dumbass Moira knows what’s up, she’s a goner. I would’ve murdered her at the very least, but a supervisor saw us and ran over. Moira was forced to apologize and I was forced to accept her damn apology. I never got to eat my Pringles. To this day I’m sure she fears my cold dead hands, ready to rip her lying face off.
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