Author Gary Taylor ◦
Six years…
So I went back out for another go at getting a pic of the face of the big black Megachile (1st pic) I’d seen over the last few weeks but alas I fear her time has come… Tho’ I did see another one, a younger one fresh out of the nest I’d reckon (2nd, 3rd and 4th pics) which shows how much fur the tattered old girl had lost. Pretty sure it’s the same species as in the the 5th pic, the first one I ever photographed nesting in my BeeTown over 6 years ago. At that time (not on this page) being a newbee I’d made a few suggestions as to what I thought it could bee… No, not black enough for punctata, no, wrong fur pattern for lucidiventris, (pretty sure I was also told we don’t get those here anyway)…
Ok, six years on, hoping someone can actually tell me what it IS, rather than what it’s not…? 😄 If it’s any help, Like aurifrons and erythropyga she caps her nest with a layer of chewed up leaf pulp over the resin.
Geraldton, Midwest WA
Photographs © Gary Taylor
Ken Walker
After 6 years, I believe your bee is Megachile semiluctuosa Smith, 1853, Megachile semiluctuosa Smith, 1853 | Atlas of Living Australia
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