What an earwig did to a bee on a Monday night...

As you probably know by now, I have a fascination with taking pictures of bees and other insects.  So, when Andy told me he saw an earwig and a bee on  the holly hock plant in the back yard last Monday night, he had my attention.  The holly hocks got quite tall this year (some were 9' tall) so I decided to cut the stem in order to get a closer look.  OMG!  An earwig eating a bee!  We assumed the bee was dead so I took a bunch of pictures before going to bed.  The next morning, I saw the bee was still on the stalk so figured it would be good practice to take pictures of it.  It MOVED!  I couldn't believe my eyes.  It was clearly dying, or almost dead at this point, but still had a bit of life in it.  Then I looked at its abdomen (the large yellow body with black stripes on it) and it had been sucked out like a hollow Easter egg.  I've since learned that a worker bee has two "stomachs", a temporary one to bring home the nectar, the other,  main, one which handles all of its digestion.  This one had its main stomach sucked out but obviously its thorax, containing the temporary stomach, heart, lungs and other organs,  was hanging on as best it could. I also learned that earwigs are omnivores but usually leave healthy bees alone.  What we witnessed was truly rare and sad and exciting all at the same time. Click on the pictures below to see some more of the "action"... 

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