Wednesday 25 April 2012

The end of the affair

As the solitary bee herald of spring, Anthophora plumipes, is my favourite bee. It is with some sadness I found this dead male on the path today. The rain might have contributed to its demise, but it might also have reached the end of its natural life. In my patch, the first males appear at the beginning of March, and the last males, usually worn individuals, fly until the middle of May, barely two months of male activity, but the lives of individual males are bound to be even shorter, something I was referring to in my last post. On the bright side, the females will be still busy nesting for another month

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