June 15, 2009
Wool-Carder Bees
Anthidium manicatum, known as the Wool-Carder Bee, is a synanthropic bee found in suburban and urban gardens in North America. Accidentally introduced from Europe some time ago, they have been steadily spreading across from the East coast. They get their name from the fact that female bees bite away the hairs from plants and use them to line the cells of their nests. In this photo, you can see that the female has a ball of "wool" beneath her and is adding more hairs to it until she has enough for a trip back to her nest. This year, the spring and early summer has been cooler than usual, and the carder bees finally made their appearance last week.
Posted by mfobrien at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)
