Two-coloured mason bee (Osmia bicolor) flying in with a stick to add to a pile of vegetation camouflaging her nest in a Brown-lipped snail shell, UK.

---

Two-coloured mason bee (Osmia bicolor) flying in with a dried plant stem to add to a growing pile of vegetation camouflaging her nest in a Brown-lipped snail (Cepaeae nemoralis) shell on a chalk grassland slope, Bath and northeast Somerset, UK, May. The bee provisions the snail shell with chewed balls of pollen and nectar, seals it with a layer of debris and masticated leaves and covers it with a stack of dried leaves and sticks.

---

Size: 3959px × 2969px
Location: Bath and Northeast Somerset, UK
Photo credit: © Nick Upton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -coloured, adult, bee, bees, bicolor, bicoloured, black, breeding, british, brown-lipped, building, camouflage, camouflaged, care, cepaea, female, flight, flying, grassland, home, homes, hymenoptera, insects, invertebrates, kingdom, mason, maternal, megachilidae, molluscs, nemoralis, nest, nesting, nests, orange, osmia, pollinators, reproduction, shell, single, snail, snails, solitary, spring, stick, uk, united, wildlife