Question: What is your favourite species of bees?

John Paterson answered on 10 Jun 2019:

The valley carpenter bee (Latin name Xylocopa varipuncta) is a really cool bee that you get in Mexico and southern USA. The male is massive, yellow and hairy so looks a bit like a flying teddy-bear with beautiful green eyes.

In the UK, I really like leaf-cutter bees. They are about the same size and shape as a honeybee but they’re hairy. They live on their own in little burrows that they dig (or they just find holes in the wall). When they’re ready to lay eggs they go out and cut off a piece of a leaf, then roll it up into a tube and put it in their burrow to make a nest for their eggs. If you’re lucky you can sometimes see them flying around with this tube!