Wow! ! Thanks for posting this , I've seen a couple of these in my garden lately and thought they were some type of parasitic wasp. Excellent - I've now seen these, the blue-banded and the teddy bear bees as well as all my europeans. The health of my garden must be improving.
What a curious looking bee. This summer I've seen more bees in my garden then ever before and some completely new to me but not this one unfortunately. I suspect some of the insects (flies and wasps look-alikes) we see on our flowers are actually bees.
They have a distinctive way of holding their abdomen. Pretty sure they collect pollen on the underside of their abdomen. Been a while since I've read up on them.
I get a lot of visual indication in my yard that they are around - the little circles removed from soft leafed plants - but rarely see them in person. A real treat when I do.
Comments
Wow! ! Thanks for posting this , I've seen a couple of these in my garden lately and thought they were some type of parasitic wasp. Excellent - I've now seen these, the blue-banded and the teddy bear bees as well as all my europeans. The health of my garden must be improving.
What a curious looking bee. This summer I've seen more bees in my garden then ever before and some completely new to me but not this one unfortunately. I suspect some of the insects (flies and wasps look-alikes) we see on our flowers are actually bees.
They have a distinctive way of holding their abdomen. Pretty sure they collect pollen on the underside of their abdomen. Been a while since I've read up on them.
I get a lot of visual indication in my yard that they are around - the little circles removed from soft leafed plants - but rarely see them in person. A real treat when I do.
Thanks for the link Elaine, It looks like a Leafcutter bee - Megachile, subgenera Eutricharaea (from the site pics).
Rob, try this site. The posts are a bit old but the site is still up. There's some stunning photos and a lot to choose from to ID your bee.
Here's a side view.
And 2 chasing each other (one's always blurry)
