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Leaf Cutter Bees in Arizona

April 23, 2017 by Barb 8 Comments

Apparently leaf cutter bees (Megachilidae) are very common in the Sonoran Desert, especially around the urban areas of Tucson, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Phoenix. They feed on nectar from lantana flowers and cut circular segments from other leaves to make their nests.

(arizonensis)

This makes perfect sense because lantana is planted everywhere in Arizona.

In our case, these bees seem to attack the pink and yellow rose bushes across the street from us.

These poor bushes struggle to produce 1 – 3 blooms during the month of April .. and well … I simply have to honour them. Almost every leaf on the shrub has been ravaged like these:Pink Rose Arizona, Keeping With the Times, Leaf Cutter Bees
The roses themselves seem to remain untouched …Pink Rose Arizona, Keeping With the Times, Leaf Cutter Bees
… until they fall apart (which happens in a day or two) … so fleeting!
Pink Rose Arizona, Keeping With the Times, Leaf Cutter BeesPink Rose Arizona, Keeping With the Times, Leaf Cutter BeesYou might want to Google leaf cutter bees for some fascinating images of these bees in action!

Thank you for stopping by, and I just want to add that I have a special give-away coming this week so please stay tuned!

 

Filed Under: Still Life Tagged With: arizona, bees, insects, leaf cutter bees, roses

Welcome! I'm Barb, and this is where I practice my mantra to "learn something new, try something different". It's my hope that something I do here may inspire you! Read More…

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