Horror meets heroism in this episode! First, the nightmare: parasitic flies that hijack bumblebee brains and turn them into zombies. Then, the amazing truth: native mining bees that laugh at freezing temperatures and have mastered winter flight through antifreeze proteins and solar-powered basking. Learn why some bees emerge through snow, how they survive freezing temperatures, and what you can plant to support these early spring warriors.

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Pollinator Partnership

KEY SOURCES

Zombie fly

• Core, A., Runckel, C., Ivers, J., Quock, C., Siapno, T., DeNault, S., Brown, B., DeRisi, J., Smith, C. D., & Hafernik, J. (2012). A new threat to honey bees, the parasitic phorid fly Apocephalus borealis. PLOS ONE, 7(1): e29639. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029639 — parasitized honey bees leave hives at night and die shortly after; larvae emerge on average seven days later from the junction of head and thorax, one to 13 per bee (mean 4.8), with one lab bee producing 25 pupae; adults emerge about 28 days after pupation; DNA barcoding confirmed phorids from honey bees and bumble bees are the same species; 77% of San Francisco Bay Area sites sampled were infected.
• Brown, B. V. (1993). Taxonomy and host records for Apocephalus — the genus's native associations with bumble bees and paper wasps.
• ZomBee Watch citizen science project, San Francisco State University. zombeewatch.org

Mining bee biology and early emergence

• Michener, C. D. (2007). The Bees of the World, 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Danforth, B. N., Minckley, R. L., & Neff, J. L. (2019). The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation. Princeton University Press.
• Cane, J. H. (2021). Global warming, advancing bloom and evidence for pollinator plasticity from long-term bee emergence monitoring. Insects, 12(5), 457. DOI: 10.3390/insects12050457
• Davis, L. R., & LaBerge, W. E. (1975). The nest biology of the bee Andrena (Ptilandrena) erigeniae Robertson. Illinois Natural History Survey Biological Notes 95. — the spring beauty specialist.
• Park, M. G., Blitzer, E. J., Gibbs, J., Losey, J. E., & Danforth, B. N. (2015). Negative effects of pesticides on wild bee communities can be buffered by landscape context. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282: 20150299. — Andrena diversity in New York apple orchards.
• Russo, L., Park, M. G., Blitzer, E. J., & Danforth, B. N. (2017). Flower handling behavior and abundance determine the relative contribution of pollinators to seed set in apple orchards. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 246, 102–108.

Insect thermoregulation and basking

• Heinrich, B. (1993). The Hot-Blooded Insects: Strategies and Mechanisms of Thermoregulation. Harvard University Press.
• Stone, G. N., & Willmer, P. G. (1989). Warm-up rates and body temperatures in bees: the importance of body size, thermal regime and phylogeny. Journal of Experimental Biology, 147, 303–328.
• Bishop, J. A., & Armbruster, W. S. (1999). Thermoregulatory abilities of Alaskan bees: effects of size, phylogeny and ecology. Functional Ecology, 13(6), 711–724.

Cold tolerance and cryoprotection

• Denlinger, D. L., & Lee, R. E. (2010). Low Temperature Biology of Insects. Cambridge University Press.
• Duman, J. G. (2001). Antifreeze and ice nucleator proteins in terrestrial arthropods. Annual Review of Physiology, 63, 327–357. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.physiol.63.1.327
• Sgolastra, F., Bosch, J., Molowny-Horas, R., Maini, S., & Kemp, W. P. (2010). Timing of eclosion affects diapause development, fat body consumption and longevity in Osmia lignaria. Journal of Insect Physiology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2010.06.006

Mourning cloak and winter moths

• Scott, J. A. (1986). The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press.
• Wagner, D. L. (2005). Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Princeton University Press.

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