A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Sleeping leaf cutter bees on bahia grass.
10 acres of wooded property in Brazoria County, TX
These bees clamp onto a plant with their mandibles to sleep.
Great capture Cindy,very cool and unusual to see,congrats on the well deserved SOTW and thanks for sharing
Hi PattyBrinkmeyer,
Congratulations! Your leafcutter bee spotting has been voted Spotting of the Week! Thank you for sharing this wonderful spotting with the PN community. We look forward to seeing what you discover next!
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/1...
Congrats on your nomination for SOTW, Patty! Your pictures are sharp and detailed.
I'm fairly sure that this leafcutter bee is one of the Megachile, based on its location, time of year spotted, and forewing venation. I can also rule out cuckoo bees (another lookalike) based on the shape of the abdomen.
Here are some visually-similar bees from this genus for your reference:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/769189/bg...
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1593904/b...
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1589242/b...
https://bugguide.net/adv_search/bgsearch...
https://www.wildbeestexas.com/leafcutter...
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Spotted on Jun 18, 2020
Submitted on Dec 28, 2020
+2
