Leafcutter bees are medium sized with dark abdomens and varying degrees of light to silver colored banding. Males have more rounded abdomens and will guard a group of mate-attracting flowers from other male bees. Most species of leafcutter bees nest in pre-existing cavities in wood or hollow plant stems. The female will chew off pieces of leaves to construct her nest. So, if you spy leaves with big rounded holes in them, it just may be a leafcutter bee at work!
To view photos of leafcutter bees, visit http://bugguide.net/node/view/7751.
You might spot a leafcutter bee in your garden if you grow the following: grindelia (gumweed), erigeron (fleabane), gaillardia (blanketflower), symphyotrichum (aster) and helianthus (sunflower).
This week is National Pollinator Week. To celebrate, try to choose plants for your garden that will support bees and other pollinators.
Weed? It's all in context. There are places I let this plant grow. It's not ugly, and the bees do like it!
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ReplyDeleteMy leaf-cutter bees love bougainvillea and rose leaves. I was fortunate to have caught one in the middle of it's work. It was just fascinating to watch.
Like Noelle, I mostly find those neat circles in our rose leaves.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments! Growing up I was led to believe that daisy fleabane was a weed. Now, I have a good patch of it in my butterfly garden bed. I am trying to learn more about "natives" which tend to be synonymous with weeds in a lot of minds. I have left more things to grow in my garden - if they're pretty and have a flower why wouldn't you? They do attract more creatures and offer more diversity. I will have to keep a close eye on my new rose leaves Noelle and Elephant's Eye! Wish I could also say bougainvillea but that will not survive the winter! Very interesting.
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