This is a new species for the garden. I have had mason bees in the garage wall, mining bees in the lawn and bumblebees in a rabbit hole, but I have long wanted my own leafcutter bees. I discovered one last week visiting its nest in a crack between two timbers in a very inaccessible part of a decking frame. So here are two images that I made earlier! I found this leafcutter bee last year in the South of France, hence the stone wall and brilliant sunlight. I was lucky that the bee was cutting her leaves only a few paces from her nest in the wall. The bee in my garden disappears at high speed, probably going to an old hedge overgrown with brambles, because the rose family provides the leafcutter bee's first choice of nest material. To remove a section of leaf, the bee straddles the edge of the leaf and cuts out an oval section with her jaws. As it is freed, she folds it neatly under her abdomen and carries it back to her nest. This may be in a fissure in timber or brickwork, a beetle hole in dead wood, the hollow stem of hogweed or even a hosepipe. Some species nest in sandy soil. The pieces of leaf are fashioned into thimble-shaped cells which are filled with a nectar and pollen mixture. An egg is laid on top and the cell capped, like a pot of jam, with a circular piece of leaf. About half a dozen cells are packed in the nest one behind the other. The last eggs to be laid will develop into male bees, so they are first in the queue to leave the nest and will be ready and waiting for the females' emergence. Like bees round a honeypot, I suppose.
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