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.
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:
The roses themselves seem to remain untouched …
… until they fall apart (which happens in a day or two) … so fleeting!
You 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!