NPR reports on the discovery of a bee that builds tiny, multi-coloured nests out of flower petals. The rare solitary bee Osmia avoseta creates the cocoons out of a mixture of mud, flower petals and nectar. Each case holds a single egg.
The discovery by a group of scientists in Turkey co-incided with that of another team in Iran; the two groups published their findings together in the American Museum Novitae. More pictures and info on NPR.org.
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Nicely done, certainly more colorful than caddis fly larva tubes.
@ Rob Jase
Oh how wrong you are - it's just a question of available materials.
Frank:
Whaaaat? Rob is wrong? Caddis fly larva tubes are more colorful? Is the only materials available for these bees always pedals? Your cryptic comment don't make no good sense. What am I missing?
@ slash
You might want to try clicking on the link in my last comment.
C'mon Slash,
don't worry, honey is still brownish! Isn't it?
@Frank
All the links on this page give me a message like "Error establishing a database connection" so I didn't see that site before posting. However when I read the URL without actual seeing the page it became crystal clear.
"Me thinkith me" found a great blog.
Ah, that's not right, thanks for letting me know. Hopefully will get things back online soon.
We discovered the Osmia avoseta building these petal homes under out garden umbrella. Never seen anything like it. It had been raining for a few days so we didn't have the umbrella up, when we opened it two petal nests fell out. The bee is now trying to build more nests. Not sure what to do as the umbrella will be put away soon. I had to google to find what it was.