Osmia rufa, Red Mason Bee
The Red Mason bee is a solitary bee but individual females frequently aggregate when finding a suitable nesting site, forming their own individual brood nearby to others in logs or soil. This is an contrast with the colonial behaviour of the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, where individuals cooperatively nest in swarms. Photographed by Harry Taylor.
Size: 3590px × 2867px
Photo credit: © Natural History Museum, London / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: animal, anthophila, arthropod, arthropoda, bee, hexapod, hexapoda, hymenoptera, insect, insecta, invertebrata, invertebrate, mason, megachilidae, megachilinae, osmia, pollinator, red, rufa, solitary
