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.

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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.

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Size: 4458px × 3343px
Location: Bath and Northeast Somerset, UK
Photo credit: © Nick Upton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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