Leafcutter bee nesting in plant pot

This is not the standard leafcutter nest site; they normally prefer holes in wood and, if you are lucky, may nest in a man-made solitary bee house. But they do quite often nest in dry soil too.

In this case I spotted the bee going into a plant pot in the polytunnel so I was able to watch her and am fairly sure she is a megachile versicolor (brown-footed leafcutter). However, she chose a plant that will need to be repotted and regularly watered. So there was nothing for it but to carefully transplant the capsules into some new dry compost. They were difficult to move without breaking as the leaf sections had not dried out yet and tended to collapse when touched. I did manage to keep them the same way up which is important to avoid tumbling the lavae inside. I was amazed to find 13 cells, all worked around the plant roots.

I will now keep the ‘seed tray’ in the shed so that it has moist air around it but not wet. Then I will put them out for release next May.