Oh, bees, I didn’t think I could love you more than I already do.
And yet.
Via Light reading: Osmia avosetta bees make petal-nests for their larvae.
O. avosetta bees at National Geographic: “Flower sandwich”
At Daily Croissant:
What appears to be part of a spring wedding bouquet is actually a nest for a rare species of solitary bee, a new study says.
Called a “flower sandwich,” the three-tiered arrangement consists of a thin layer of petals on the outside, then a layer of mud, and finally another layer of petals lining the inside of the chamber…
At Discovery News:
Although O. avosetta was known to science, no one had ever had a chance to study its behaviors. Bees don’t advertise their nests, Rozen said, and this species is only active for about two months out of the year.
But in a lucky coincidence, two teams in two different countries discovered the nest-building habits on the same day. Rozen was working with a team of entomologists in Turkey last May, while another team was studying the bees in Iran. The groups collaborated on a recent paper published in American Museum Novitates.
At Beekeeping Times:
“It was absolute synchronicity that we all discovered this uncommon behavior on the same day,” says Jerome Rozen, curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. Rozen and colleagues were working near Antalya, Turkey while another group of researchers were in the field in Fars Province, Iran.
This site has a photo of a bee carrying a petal to the nest, but it’s too small to make out much. I would love to see video of how the bees manage this feat.
MelanieB says:
Wow! That’s amazing. And so beautiful. Like little papier mache packets.
On May 16, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Andrea says:
I can so clearly see a children’s book in this–THE VERY SOLITARY BEE illustrated in watercolors…
On May 16, 2011 at 4:10 pm
sarah says:
Google Reader needs a love button.
On May 16, 2011 at 6:52 pm