Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson C · Topic 16: Wasps and bees
100. The leaf-cutter bee
Goal: Your child can find the neat round and oblong holes the leaf-cutter bee cuts from leaves, and explain how she uses the pieces to build cups for her young.
You'll need
- A rose bush or other garden shrub with smooth leaves
- Leaves chewed by caterpillars, for comparison
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
Comstock's story of watching a leaf-cutter bee cut a circle from a rose leaf "quicker'n a wink" and fly off with it, and of finding the nest of rose-leaf cups in a tunnel. Then Lesson C's leading thought, method and seven questions, with a photograph of a cut rose leaf and the nest cups.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Comstock's method: "It is very easy to find in June or autumn the leaves from which the leaf-cutter bee has cut the bedding for her young." Look on roses, lilacs, redbud and other smooth-leaved shrubs.
Safety first
Watch the bees; don't try to catch them. Mind the rose thorns. Sting safety: watch bees and wasps from a few steps away, move slowly, and never swat at them. If anyone in the family is allergic to stings, keep well back and have their medicine with you.
Keep the big idea in mind
Comstock's "leading thought" is the one idea the lesson is meant to lead to. Read it to yourself now, and save it to share at the end, after your child has looked and answered:
When we see the edges of rose leaves with holes of regular pattern in them, some of the holes being oblong and some circular, we know the leaf-cutter bee has cut them to make her cradle cups.
Find the cut leaves
Do you find rose leaves with round holes cut in their edges? Do you find on the same bush some leaflets with oblong holes in them?
Are the circular holes of the same size? Are the long holes about equal in size and shape? Do you find any other plants with holes like these cut in them?
Who did it?
Put a cut leaf next to a leaf chewed by a caterpillar.
What do you think made these holes? If an insect was taking a leaf for food would the holes be as regular?
Have you ever seen the little black bee carrying pieces of rose leaves between her front feet?
The cups
Look at the book's photograph of the nest cups. Comstock says the oblong pieces line the sides of each cup and the round pieces make the lids. Ask:
If the mother bee made each little nest cup and put in the bee-bread, and honey for her young, which cup contains the oldest of the family? Which the youngest?
Nature notebook
Comstock's first task:
Sketch or describe the rose leaf thus cut, noting exactly the shape of the holes.
Trace around a real cut leaf if you can. Then read the leading thought aloud.
Tip
Leaf-cutter bees will nest in "bee hotels": a block of wood with holes drilled in it, or a bundle of paper tubes, hung on a sunny wall in spring. Watch for green leaf plugs in the holes.