Not another Bee!

Oh yes! It's becoming an unplanned habit to put subjects back to back. Yesterdays Wool Carder Bee hit the spotlight just as I was taking this photo.

Have you ever noticed disks cut out of your Roses leaves? Now you know who is to blame. The Leaf Cutter Bee, megachile centuncularis cut them out, not only from Roses although it's one of their favourite plants, and takes them away to line her nest.

Not in the best focus but I captured her as she stuffed the leaf disk into an old bee box which a friend thought was a useless object and I temporarily put on top of a ledge. I won't be moving it now!

The Leaf Cutters use these boxes, hollow plant stems, holes in the ground or in walls, carefully lining the insides using a mixture of pollen and nectar as a wall paper paste. Side by side or back to back, she will make roughly 20 lined cells in each of which she will lay one single egg. Each entrance is sealed and the larvae will hatch, eating the lining as they grow throughout the summer. The young pupate during the winter months and will emerge as adults the following June.
At this time of year the males having mated are now all dead, leaving the females to build the housing and lay the next generation.

If you find a few holes in your leaves, don't worry, they really do very little damage and Leaf Cutter Bees are very important as pollinators. As our Honey Bees continue to suffer atrocious set backs, your food in the future could become dependent on these little creatures!

Oh, another little video the busy Bee at work! :)