Seeing a bee flying past with a large piece of leaf neatly rolled and held between its legs is something suprising and special. The Leaf Cutter Bee Megachile sp. is a solitary bee not living in a hive community. Australia has about 1,500 native bee species and nearly all of those are solitary. See Aussie Bee for more infomation.

The female Leaf Cutter Bee cuts circular pieces out of leaves which are then shaped into a tube for the eggs and food for her larva. This female is building her nest in the cat’s scratching post. Watch video: Leaf Cutter Bee

The singless Sugarbag Honeybee Trigona carbonaria are better known. These tiny bees are about half the size of a common house fly live in colonies of up to 1,000. See Sugarbag for information on keeping sitingless native bees for honey or polination. Watch video: Sugarbag Honeybee

Article in Southside News

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