It's been a good week for solitary bees, and now that the weather has picked up a bit there may be a few more. The photos below show the Hairy-footed flower bee which can easily be mistaken for a bumblebee - clinging on to the edge of a leaf with her jaws while cleaning herself (all legs occupied). It just goes to show what strength there is in insect muscles.
There is also an Ashy mining bee. This solitary bee will burrow holes into your well-tended flowerbed and neatly-clipped lawn, leaving a miniature volcano-shaped pile of earth. She will lay eggs in the hole and provision each one with some food - a mixture of pollen and nectar for the larva (grub) to eat when it hatches. When it has run out of food, the larva pupates (turns into a chrysalis) and it will spend the winter in that state until spring when the adult insects emerge.
The third photo is unidentified as yet. I think it is the male of a leaf-cutter bee - possibly
Megachile species. It was very small and clearly feeding from a small geranium. Watch this space for more details if I can get them.
 |
| Hairy-footed Flower Bee - Anthophora plumipes |
 |
| Ashy Mining Bee - Andrena cineraria |
 |
| Possible Leaf-cutter Bee - male |
No comments:
Post a Comment