Common yellow face female (Hyaleus communis) bee using Dufour’s gland secretions when sealing her nest entrance What is Dufour’s gland? Well according to Mitra, it’s a gland, although it and the poison gland are associated with the sting, its actual...
How does a leafcutter bee make her nest from leaf pieces? What do leafcutter bees actually do with the piece of leaf or flower petal, that they carry back to their nesting cavity? This film shows exactly that in more detail. Having watched leafcutters making their...
Birds diet and calcium Let’s start at the beginning, nestlings are ‘wrapped’ inside the hard eggshell. Calcium is an essential element in the diet of birds, particularly when they are producing eggs which need calcium to be viable. Insects are low in...
Plants for bees: a 6-year study The following information along with a link to a more detailed report may be of interest to many of you wanting to help bees by having the flowers they will actually use. I hope you find it useful. From rosybee plants for bees Summary...
A ‘swarm’ of bumblebees is usually a mating ritual by Bombus hypnorum males I have had many different bumblebee species nesting in my wildlife garden and found many wild nests over the years. In 2001 (Goulson and Williams) found the first recorded Bombus...
Common Yellow-face bee starts her new nest but dies near the entrance This female Common yellow-face bee (Hylaeus communis) did nest in another cavity and as she neared the end of that nest, she flew around in search of another nest site. I was on hand to view this so...
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