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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.
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 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 😃
I'm no expert, but because of the way the ovipositor curves around the abdomen, I'm guessing something in Leucospidae
It could be Leucospis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucospis) which are parasitic wasps that prey on solitary bees
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.
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.
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.