Sunday July 1

Another hot day.

Today I decided on a more direct approach to identify these flipping bees. I waited for a bee to enter the hotel and hen put a pot over the entrance hole and waited for it to emerge.

This worked very well resulting in one very angry leafcutter bee and a new identification.

Wood-carving Leafcutter Bee Megachile ligniseca

The black-haired end to the pollen brush suggests that the species is versicolor and not centuncularis as I had thought. This is still not good for the identification of the sharp-tailed bee, and I may have to catch that too.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if there are further twists and turns, but I'm doing my best.

Post-script: Twists and turns there were. The irecord expert has reidentified the leaf-cutter as Wood-carving Leafcutter Bee Megachile ligniseca. He has also told me that the Sharp-tailed Bee from a few days ago cannot be positively identified without a body. I suspected this would be the case.

I also saw a new moth for the garden, either a Burnet or a Cinnabar Moth. Unfortunately it kept going so I will have to leave it unidentified.