Hairy-footed Flower Bees

Dear Readers, my pal Leo from our local community orchard/garden/woodland Barnwood spotted these Hairy-footed Flower Bees mating a few days ago. How exciting! What usually happens with this species is that the males, the stripy white-faced individuals, emerge from their burrows first – the eggs were laid in tunnels dug by their mothers last year, and the larvae have been developing all this time, until they’re ready to emerge as fully-fledged bees. The males then go in search of a mate – the females are easily identified as they’re jet-black. You might see the males patrolling a flowering shrub in search of a hungry female coming in to feed after a long, cold winter, but sometimes they’re even more opportunistic, and will wait around the site that they emerged from in case a female pops out.

The video below shows a rather torpid female, who probably can’t fly yet because she’s still too cold/not awake yet (I can sympathise). The males are clearly just waiting for their chance.

What is extra interesting is that the terrain that the bees are using is absolutely perfect – Leo tells me that it was left over from when their paths were laid, and it’s clearly at the right orientation for the bees to have burrowed into last year. It’s a clear illustration that if you create the right habitat, wildlife will come – it makes me think that I should somehow build a sandbank in my south-facing front garden (but probably not until the builders/painters have gone 🙂 ). It’s all so exciting, and shows that we can all make a difference and give our beleaguered wildlife a chance. It’s so encouraging.