{"id":4118,"date":"2012-08-15T11:42:07","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T11:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christinefarmer.com\/home\/?p=4118"},"modified":"2022-02-02T15:47:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T15:47:31","slug":"leafcutter-bee-emerging-in-ink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christinefarmer.com\/home\/2012\/08\/leafcutter-bee-emerging-in-ink\/","title":{"rendered":"Leafcutter bee emerging, in brush and ink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Leafcutter Bee Emerging”, 2012
Ink and brush on Fabriano paper, approx. 6″x 5″<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After almost a year lived in perfect darkness inside a leaf cell, a leafcutter bee emerges into the light. First its antennae, then its eyes experiencing the world for the first time. In its jaws are the dried leaves of the cell from which the bee has just broken free. One after another the bees hatch from the leafy tubes on warm, dry days, to fly into the garden. The leafcutters in my garden were very late this year. Usually they will hatch sometime during the first week of June, but it was not until the second week of July that I heard the familiar clicking as they chewed their way out of the dried leaf cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emerging, some of them seemed weak and hungry. One stumbled its’ way out of the nest, rested for a while on the ground below and then like the others flew for the nearest flowers and food. After a week or so of foraging and mating, the leafcutters will begin to return to the bee houses, and female ones will select a tube to clear of last year’s debris and begin nesting again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n