Just a short introduction message and a batch of photos I have made recently during a visit in a population of Trachusa byssina in southern Belgium. This bee is a relative of anthidiines, yet it nests underground and uses freshly excised leaf fragments as cell lining. The fragments are then filled in with resin collected by the females on nearby trees. I have managed to make photos of the females with the nesting material at a time when they had just initiated their nest construction.
Looking forward to sharing more observations with all of you,
Cheers Nico
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Nicolas J. Vereecken
Post-doctoral Fellow
Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology
Free University of Brussels CP 160/12
Av. F.D. Roosevelt, 50
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: nicolas.vereecken@ulb.ac.be
Tel: +32.2.650.22.67
Fax: +32.2.650.24.45
Lab @ http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~nvereeck/
Photos @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/90408805@N00/
