Leafcutter Bee Cell Leaf Sections

At the risk of boring readers, I wanted to include one final Leafcutter Bee post, showing the two basic shapes that these bees chew out of leaves in order to make their incubator/nursery cells.  There are oblong pieces, roughly an inch long, as well as perfectly round, ¼-inch diameter pieces.  Each cell consists of several layers of oblong pieces rolled lengthwise which are sealed at one end with a round piece of leaf.  The round end pieces appear to be glued into place (perhaps with the pollen/nectar mixture?) at one end of the cell, leaving the opposite end open.  The cells are arranged end-to-end, with the open end of the cell placed against the sealed end of the next cell.  Together they form a nest that is somewhat cigar-shaped and is typically located a few inches down in the soil, or in a cavity.

About these ads