This is the first time I have found a different cocoon in my bee boards. Normally I have Mason Bees, and their use of mud is quite amazing. But I was completely blown away when I spotted a home for a new kind of bee. They are solitary as well, and quite similar to the Mason Bees. Both work by themselves and not in a colony, they collect pollen and store them away for their brood. And they are only active for a few months a year. They are known as Leafcutter Bees, as they cut small pieces of leaves off plants and use them to build a home for their offspring.
Above is an example of my Mason Bee homes, quite different looking with all the mud. Mason Bees collect mud and clay to build homes, while Leafcutter Bees use fragments of leaves and glue them together with their propolis.
I started opening my bee boards yesterday and right away I started finding leaves stashed away in the boards. Though nothing complete just yet. I am guessing the Leafcutter Bee got confused, brought them in the wrong hole and then just left them there. Or maybe predator ate them before they could finish.. Not really sure.
These are just little cuttings of leaves, I saw the bees carry them in. They seem to show up a little later than the Mason Bees. Its quite the sight to see a small little bee carrying a leaf at least its own size, flying in the air with it under its belly.
I am unsure of what plant they come from, though I did spot some leaves last year with the tell tale sign of these bees. The way they cut the leaves lets you know they were there.
A picture next to my hand, so you can see the scale of them.
Eventually I came across some intact and fully built cocoons. It was quite the feat of engineering these little solitary bees pulled off.
Another tray with just leaf fragments and then a complete home to the right. I found about five of these, not sure how many bees are in each of these leaf clusters. From what I have read online I should not open them or soak them in water. So we shall just see what emerges next year if I am lucky enough to be right by them as they do.
You can pick them up but you must take care to handle them very carefully. I cannot clean them as I do the Mason Bee cocoons as they are not water proof and it would kill the bee larva inside. Instead I removed them from the trays and placed them in mesh bags, I will put them out during the spring time and hopefully they will emerge. But I must say I was quite excited to find a new kind of bee in the homes. Now I have seen three kinds using my bee boards, seeing Mason Bees use them along with Leafcutter Bees and even Giant Resin Bees. I was only expecting one kind when I built these so its quite the treat.
More about this kind of bee:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megachile
Don't know much about cocoons.
They are pretty cool when compared to colony bees.
I see
Yeah buddy nature is pretty cool
Do you do beekeeping or do you keep bees as a hobby? Very interesting. I was bitten by a bee when I was very young. My finger hurt a lot. I still worry when I see a bee. My only relationship with bees is to eat their beautiful honey 🤗
I do it all as a hobby. I have a bee hive for honey bees as well. But in this post I am just talking about solitary bees.
In my experience Mason Bees and Leafcutter Bees will not sting you unless their life is in danger. As every one of them building homes is a queen. I have yet to be stung by one, though I have been stung by my honey bees.. though it was my fault.
Hehe yeah I love honey too :-D
This is fascinating - thank you for sharing @solominer!
Cannot wait to see what Spring brings...
Annabelle :)
It sure is, I am really glad I discovered solitary bees.
Me too, only a few months away from them emerging :-)
Cannot wait to see what you find once the weather gets warmer!
Annabelle 😊
very interesting, I found some nests on my back porch that looked like the mason bee homes. They were made of mud and in a line like yours, but not in wood, they were in a corner.
Oh cool, those are probably mud dauber nests.. Feel free to take a picture and leave it in the comments here and I can possibly ID it for you.
I did not know what they were so I knocked them down, but I do know what a mud dauber nest looks like and this was different, they were exactly like the picture of yours that says mason bee nests, now I feel bad for destroying them. If they build more, I will snap a pic and send it to you.
that is what they look like. maybe this is it?
What I had on my porch looked like little igloos or huts, one behind the other in a row, they were rounded on the top and each maybe 1/2 inch long
hmmm not sure then.. next time you see some take a picture for me.