An irregular blog of photos taken of insects and other natural history subjects on my travels around Yorkshire, Britain and Europe. Hopefully you'll find them useful in putting a name to your own specimens but always check your identifications with an expert.

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Hotel Residents

The Red Mason Bees Osmia rufa have been busy over the past month collecting pollen and creating cells for their eggs. Here's a female coming back with mud to seal one of the tubes. - Update: following comments I've amended the title of the 2nd pic.


Osmia rufa female


Colletes male (perhaps C.daviesanus)

2 comments:

Africa Gomez said...

I love your bee hotel. I am afraid the little bee on the daisy is a Colletes, likely daviesanus. This bee loves plants from the daisy family, and it is often found on tansy, oxeye daisy and feverfew.

Tom said...

Thanks for commenting on my blog Blackbird...I should have doubled-checked my id before labelling the pic...I've had a look at other photos of C.daviesanus but have err'd on the side of caution in re-labelling my pic.