Where do bees sleep?

Female wild bees usually spend the night in the half-completed nests.

The males do not participate in nest building and therefore have to find a safe place to sleep elsewhere: They look for cracks and crevices, or they sleep on flowers. However, as soon as dew falls, it becomes very damp near the ground in the morning, so some species cling to higher and drier stalks to sleep.

The males of Chelostoma rapunculi probably have the most beautiful and safest roosting place: they spend the night in the flowers that serve as the sole pollen source for their females: in bellflowers (Campanula). If you carefully turn the flowers over in the evening, you will often find several males sharing the roost.

All native Chelostoma species have a strikingly elongated body.

Image captions:
Meadow, flower bed, rock garden - bellflowers thrive in quite different habitats.
Males of Chelostoma rapunculi spend the night in the shelter of bellflower flowers.
In all bellflowers, bristle-like stylar hairs sweep pollen from the anthers. Female bees collect it from this stylar brush.
Male (left) and female (right) of Chelostoma rapunculi.

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