Work(er) Bee

At work last week I noticed an insect flying in and out of the open door of the back shop area. It hovered in front of the pegboard tool cabinet like it was looking for something. Then would fly out the door and return a few minutes later. I went over to see what was going on.



It turned out to be a little Leaf Cutter Bee, carefully inspecting the holes in the pegboard.



The bee finally landed and crawled into one of the openings. After a few minutes she exited the hole and flew out the back door of the shop.

I kept an eye on the Bee as it made a number of trips flying in and out of the shop. She was bringing bright pink circles cut from bougainvillea.

This is a picture of her as she was backed into the hole, laying her egg (below).

She continued working the whole morning, flying in and out of the back door bringing more bits of pink bougainvillea.

She stopped her trips by early afternoon, and I didn't see her again after that.

She left a bit of bougainvillea hanging out of one of the pegboard holes.





When I left work that afternoon, I drove around the building looking for the bougainvillea plants she might have been using. The closest one was across the street and about half a block away.

It was pretty odd to think that an INDOOR pegboard tool cabinet was the best option a Leaf Cutter Bee could find to lay her eggs in. She must have looked in a lot of different places to find suitable "habitat", and hopefully she did find other locations for her eggs.

This was a clear example of how important man-made habitat can be to help the smallest creatures to survive - even if it is a happy coincidence.



"One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin."
~Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida