A special new garden guest: Megachile leachella ^[1] (det confirmation: Flor Rhebergen).

This rare species can be found mainly along the coast and in the most southern part of the Netherlands ^[2], so this female was roaming a bit. She uses Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), a seen here where she is foraging for nectar, but also other plants that occur in the garden like Viper’s bugloss, Common restharrow, Wild mignonette and Lucerne so maybe she will return another time.

The bee makes a lot of noise when she flies and is clearly present. She appeared twice that day, at beginning of the afternoon and near the end of the day.

A very nicely coloured bee with a slick appearance and beautiful eyes!

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Literature

¹ Nederlands Soortenregister

² Waarneming.nl