With more thistle chipping came more opportunities to just stand, rest and listen. I heard this little girl and had to really concentrate on the sound not the visual cues. Her grey-toned body blended into the colours of the dead wood nest site. Only about 8-9mm long and very fast moving i was lucky to see her entering a nest in a dead tree branch. Hole diam. 4-5mm. Not a deep burrow. This is a resin bee, Megachile tasmanica, Page 31. Very similar to Megachile ordinaria, but slightly smaller, page 28. The hairs on T5,6 of both species are described as pale gold but Michael Batley supports the diagnosis and says he has found white hairs on all of the specimens he has caught. My first resin bee sighting at Hampton. Seen at the nest not on flowers, which is what I experienced in the Lower Blue Mountains. I had never seen a resin bee in my garden until I put in nest blocks. And even after years of having prolifically used nest blocks I have only seen a resin bee on a flower (pea) once.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 01:34:44 +0000