The "Cutters" are back

Last year saw a colony of Leaf-cutter Bees (Megachile centuncularis) take over the bamboo bee house placed on the west facing garden fence in the back garden.

It was really successful, with several compartments filled with eggs - 4 Jul 15.

Over the Winter and Spring months the grubs hatched, pupated and today they emerged as fully grown Leaf-cutter Bees in just over 11 months.

There were several flying around the garden with a few feeding on the Blackberry, Honeysuckle and Pyracantha flowers. In the bee house a few of them are already looking at potential nesting sites. More on Leaf-cutter Bees Here

Here are few Leaf-cutter images below, plus a few hoverflies, bees etc.

The red dots indicating the 10 nests for 2015. And success as the occupants all hatched as shown for this year. If you look closely there are new bees already looking to nest.

A newbie already investigating a potential nest.

One of the new emergents.......

........and another........

.......and another one.

And it wasn't just the Leaf-cutters on the honeysuckle, but also White-tailed Bumblebees and..........

................Neoascia tenure hoverflies. This is a male. 

There were also Marmalade Hoverflies, Episyrphus balteatus.

This is "Cuckoo-spit" often seen in gardens and if you look closely you can just make out the larvae of a Common Froghopper..............

.............and here is the adult, Philaenus spumarius. This species has a wide colour variation and is extremely common.