My small bee hotel established in 2021 has been a hit with the local population, usually fully occupied. I see many different native resin, leaf cutter and a few carpenter bees around. Lately, I’ve been seeing more of these bees or wasps show up. I’m having a great deal of trouble identifying them. Can anyone help me? It has a distinctive round abdomen, single pale yellow ring, and a tail coming out of the torso.
I should of course mention, this was taken in NSW.
If you don’t know of it, iNaturalist helps with relatively quick IDs. Upload a photo, an AI will give you options with percentage matches it thinks, and then other people will take a look and ID what they think
Thank you, I’ll keep that bookmarked 😃
Could you cross post this great contribution with Aussie Enviro please?
Btw, this website might come in handy at some point: https://www.aussiebee.com.au/
I’m no expert, but because of the way the ovipositor curves around the abdomen, I’m guessing something in Leucospidae
Thank you! Was able to make an id in that family. I believe it is a Leucospis histrio ssp. vespoides. The recent conditions seem to be promoting them, or maybe they’re more plentiful while hunting out bee larvae as hosts.
It could be Leucospis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucospis) which are parasitic wasps that prey on solitary bees
That‘s a brilliant hotel design!
This one is a Mr Fothergills hotel from bunnings. They’re not bad, have a variety of diameters for different species.
If you need confirmation of species, I suggest contacting some east coast resident experts: Dr Tobias Smith or Dr Tim Heard. I’ve crossed paths with them both a few times at ANBA events and they know their stuff. I can provide contact details for them if Google comes up short.
I’ve always been told bee hotels are harmful as they help spread illnesses?
I’d be interested in a source if you can find one. The only real concern I’ve read is about chemicals in the wood or materials.
