help with bee identification

[greatdane]

Hi,can any one help with identifing a strange bee ,only one of them,thats made a nest in a hanging basket in my garden,its going into the basket underneath through one of the drainage holes,its always coming back with a small piece of leaf its cut off and takes it into the underside of the basket,its a small to medium size and very dark in colour,its great entertainment watching him/her working hard at his task,sorry cant get a photo of it,any help would be a great help

[peatff]

Are there a few hanging round outside the entrance to the colony on guard ? We had some in a bird box last year, they were there about six weeks then disappeared leaving a few dead in the box. We looked into it and they were apparently tree bees. They were no problem unlike the wasp nest at the bottom of the garden which I destroyed when I got stung on the belly again. Just read it again and yours sounds like the leaf cutter or solitary bee which we set up a box for. They like narrow tubes and seal their eggs in with vegetable matter for the larva to eat on the way out. They look a lot like a hover fly.

Edited July 21, 2016 by peatff

[greatdane]

many thanks,i thought it might be the solitary bee,but was not sure,what ever it is they are very entertaining and hard working and we wont disturb them until the end of the season,thanks once again