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🐝 Ants, Bees & Wasps

South American Cuckoo Bee

Exaerete frontalis

Not Evaluated

About

A large metallic blue-green cleptoparasitic orchid bee that lays its eggs in the nests of other orchid bees. Its mandibles are strong enough to break into sealed brood cells.

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Did You Know?

Its larvae first consume the host's food stores, then devour the host bee larva itself before pupating in the stolen nest cell.