carder bee

Noun

 * 1)   Common name for any species of bee in the genus Bombus or in the family Megachilidae, that collects plant fibre and processes it for nesting material, by activities resembling the carding of fibre.
 * 2)  Common name mainly applied to some Bombus species in the northern hemisphere, where they occur widely and are the most familiar species of bees that exhibit carding activity in their nest building, rather than genera such as Anthidium in the Megachilidae, some of which occur in the Northern hemisphere as well and similarly exhibit carding activity.
 * 3) * 1923 A.D.IMMS A GENERAL TEXTBOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY
 * Other Bombi, known as carder bees, form surface nests hidden away among grass, ivy or other herbage. They derive their name from their habit of collecting moss and other material used in nest formation and plaiting it with the aid of their legs and mandibles. Having formed the nest the next act of the queen is to collect a mass of pollen which is formed into a paste. Upon the top of this substance she constructs a circular wall of wax and, in the cell thus formed, she lays her first batch of eggs, capping the latter over with a covering of wax.
 * 1)  In the southern hemisphere, where Bombus species occur only exceptionally, the common name most familiarly applied to species of bees that exhibit carding activity in their nest building, and are members of genera in the, such as Anthidium, Immanthidium and Afranthidium
 * 2) * 1979 S.H Skaife. Revised by John Ledger: African Insect Life. ISBN 0 86977 087 X
 * The little carder bees of the genus Immanthidium also belong to the Megachilidae. They are mostly black with white markings on the abdomen, and with a white pollen brush on the underside of the abdomen. In some species the males are bigger than the females, an unusual feature among insects. Most of them make their nests in tubular openings, in sites similar to those chosen by the leafcutters, but their cells are lined with cottony fibres which they strip with their mandibles from various hairy plants. As an example of the group we can consider the widespread species, Immanthidium junodi.The female carder bee arrives at her home carrying a little bundle of white fluff between her front legs. She takes this into her nest and cards the fibrous material by pressing it with her head and working it with her jaws until it forms a thin, uniform, thimble-shaped lining to the bottom of the tube. It takes several journeys before her beautiful white thimble is complete, ready to receive its store of food. She carries the pollen back to the nest on the underside of her abdomen and the nectar in her crop and stocks the cell with the mixture. It takes her about two days to construct and stock a cell; she then lays an egg on top of the food and closes the cell with a pad of fluff, well carded and felted. She fills the tube with cells within 10 mm from the entrance and then seals it off with a thick pad of fibres, pressed down firmly by her head and jaws to form a protective barrier to keep out enemies.