Culprit.

A female leaf cutter bee uses her jaws to cut a section of leaf from the foliage of plants, in gardens often roses, in my garden it’s Gertrude, and then flies back to the nest site with the piece of leaf slung between her legs, as per photo above.

The nest site may be a naturally occurring tunnel, in this case a bug hotel, that I’ve bought. Inside the nest the leaf pieces are manipulated to form a thimble-like structure, which is then provisioned with a mixture of nectar and pollen. When sufficient food has been gathered the female bee lays a single egg on the stored food and then proceeds to cap the cell with circular pieces of leaf. This process is repeated until the nest may contain about 20 larval cells.

In some cases many leaves on a plant can have sections taken out of them, however, this does not usually affect the health of the plant.

I beg to differ.

Gertrude is on her last legs.

Apparently, I should be happy about this amazing act of nature. Oh I am. Deliriously so.

And 30 quid down.