Clay nesting aids for wild bees

Insect hotels with clay-filled surfaces are popular with the hairy-footed flower bee, among others, as a nesting site. The female digs tunnels in the clay. For protection, the interior walls are lined with a white, waxy substance.

Anthophora bees are amazing flying acrobats. In spring, males patrol around their preferred food plants with distinctive flight sounds in search of female mating partners. In the process, they perform abrupt turns, stops, and other rapid flight maneuvers.

Hairy-footed flower bees have a particularly long tongue. This allows them to easily reach the nectar in deep tubular flowers, which is denied to bees with shorter proboscises. The animals often forage plants from the borage family and on deadnettles, but they also visit various other flowers.

Image captions:
Hairy-footed flower bee approaching a young flower of common comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.).
Older common comfrey flowers turn blue.
Another "favorite food'': the lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis L.).
Male (left) and female (right) of the hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes).

English translation of the information panel in the Botanical Garden. Original German text: Dr. Barbara Ditsch, Mandy Fritzsche