Big-eyed black bee with dark red legs, amber wings, white body stripes and other markings resting on a closed aster flower against a black background.

Big-eyed black bee with dark red legs, amber wings, white body stripes and other markings resting on a closed aster flower against a black background.

Big-eyed black bee with dark red legs, amber wings, white body stripes and other markings resting on a closed aster flower against a black background.

“Girl with kaleidoscope eyes” #Coelioxys sp. #Cuckoo #leafcutter #bees parasitize the nests of leafcutter bees by invading & laying their eggs inside that will kill the leafcutter larvae & then eat their store of nectar & pollen. This female was chilling on an aster in my garden.

In the bottom of a bright orange calendula flower a dark grey bee is drinking nectar. She has large dark grey eyes and a striped abdomen that tapers to a vicious-looking point

Coelioxys, or sharp-tailed bee

The wicked-looking end of her tail is for piercing the egg cell of a leaf-cutter bee

She lays her own egg thru the opening & as w/ other kleptoparasites, it develops quickly & immediately kills any other eggs w/ its large mandibles

#dailybee #bcnativebees #coelioxys

Dark bee with white marks on its abdomen and pale hairs on the sides of its sharply-pointed thorax. It's feeding from the centre of a golden-yellow marigold flower.

Spotted in the garden today this Coelioxys conoidea, Large Sharp-tail Bee. It's a cleptoparasite of Megachile maritima, the Coast Leafcutter Bee, so I probably need to review my Megachile IDs. This is a female, and I saw a male a while back. #Coelioxys #SolitaryBees

A lovely freshly emerged female Coelioxys, probably C. elongata or C. inermis from 22/06/25, in my #Staffs garden #solitarybee #bee #Coelioxys

Pretty certain this is Coelioxys conoidea, the Large Sharp-tailed Bee, a cleptoparasite of Megachile maritima, the Coastal Leaf-cutter Bee. If so I might have to revisit some of my Megachile IDs.
#SolitaryBees #Coelioxys #Hymenoptera #Bees

Lateral view of Black, gray, brown and white bee stretching from its sharp tail in the lower right hand corner, diagonally across the frame to the antennae in the upper left hand corner, light purple aster petals starting in left bottom corner foreground, wrap behind the bee to the right bottom corner, bee sits on a bed of the yellow aster anthers. Bee wings stretch up to the upper right hand corner of the photo.

Cuckoo leaf cutter bee (Coelioxys) / New England aster flower

From Montrose Point bird sanctuary here in Chicago, on a warm day in October this year.

Happy Friday! 🐝

#nativeBees #cuckooBees #Coelioxys #nature #chicago #bees #leafcutterBees #photography #macro #gardens #gardening #wildLife

Leaf-cutter cuckoo bee (Coelioxys) on prairie groundsel May 2024 while walking the pathways around Chicago’s Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

#PeggyNotebaert #NatureMuseum #CuckooBees #SolitaryBees #NativeBees #bees #photography #pollinators #Coelioxys #macroPhotography #leafcutterBees #nature 🐝 💐🌼