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Mrs. European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) visiting a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) outside my mother-in-law's house outside Härnösand, Sweden, in mid-July (of 2024).

A male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) on "his" lamb's ears (Stachyz byzantina).

Since the females use plant hair to line their egg chambers, the males know that if they make a suitable plant their territory and chase away anything that isn't a female of his species, chances are that he will be able to mate with the females when they come there.

A shot of this very same male and a little lady can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53925491555/

Unlike with most species of bees (there are 20,000+ species in the world), the male of the European carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) is significantly larger than the female.

This is a result of their peculiar behaviour where the males chase away anything that isn't a female of his species from "his" plants. And since when chasing away, size is an advantage, evolution has led to larger males.

But that's not all it has equipped the males with. Since stingers in bees and wasps are modified ovipositors, ie lady parts, no male has a stinger. But some sort of weaponry could be helpful when chasing away other bugs so the males of this species actually have five black spikes on their tail which they use as weapons when defending their turf. They don't really show in this shot, but in part 1, three of them are clearly visible: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53906531828/

Also, today I stumbled on a *really* great video on YouTube about this bee which shows a lot of this in wonderful detail. It's just two-and-a-half minutes long, but I really recommend you to check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX6d7fDbJp8

The European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) belong to the family Megachilidae. These bees don't have the typical pollen baskets on their hind legs like most (but not all) other bees. Instead they have haie on the underside of their abdomen so they gather their pollen there instead.

This is a female and the beautiful flower she is visiting is a house leek (Sempervivum tectorum).

Two more shots of the same specimen here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53854686478/

and here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54291446445/

I really like this species of bee and have an album with 90+ photos of them here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

When editing this photo I initially intended to crop it down to just the bee and the flower, but looking closer, I noticed how much yellow pollen was flying out in the riht part of the photo so I decided to keep it in so this is an uncropped 50 megapixel shot (and you can of course still see all the details and those fantastic eyes if you zoom in).

The bee is a female of my favourite bug of all - the European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) and the beautiful flower it is on is a house leek (Sempervivum tectorum) which was growing in my mother-in-law's garden outside Härnösand, Sweden.

For an album with all shots of these bees I've taken since 2013, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

A male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) landing on top of a (smaller) female of the same species and then proceeding to mate with her - something which in their world is over in like five seconds which means I had very little time to get in there to get the shot.

This is quite possibly my favourite bug and if you want more photos of them, I have an album with 90 shots of them here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

Really pleased with how this male European carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) on a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) was cool enough to allow me to get close enough to snap several shots with the Canon MP-E65 mm lens on the camera without flying away.

This was taken at 1.8:1 magnification, but part 1 is even closer here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53969775482/

Part 2 was taken at 1:1 and shows the entire bee here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54050084899/

If you want to see more shots of this bee - probably my favourite insect - then I have an album with, at the time of posting, 88 shots of them here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

Quite uncharacteristically, this male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) sat still more than mere seconds on the hairy leaf of a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) which allowed me to take more than one photo. This is a two exposure focus stack made using Zerene Stacker.

In this shot, you can sort of see a couple of the five spikes which the male has on the end his abdomen and which are used as weapons to chase of anybody not a female of his species form "his" flower. These have nothing to do with a stinger which is a modified ovipositor and thus something that only females have.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54078556538/

A well-timed shot of a male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) right as he takes off from the flower of a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina).

This flower is part of his turf and he wil patrol it intensely and aggressively chase away anything which isn't a female of his species from them.

This species can hover and on several occasions, I've observed them actually looking at me mid air, like trying to decide if it should have a go at chasing me away as well.

The males of this species are noticeably larger than the females (which is a rarity among bees) and also actually armed - they have a row of black spikes on their abdomen (a couple of them are noticable in this shot if you zoom in) which they use when fighting of other males or other intruders.

A closeup on his face with nice detail on the compound eyes here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53969775482/

An album with nearly 90 shots of these amazing bees here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

The European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) likes to use hair from plants to line their egg chambers, but the "wool" part of the name comes from their appearance - they certainly are woolly!

For an entire album with photos of this, my favourite bug of all, with at the time of posting, 87 photos in it, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

The male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) protects his domains quite aggressively against other pollinating insects - and especially agains other males.

I believe this one is a female, but right before I took this shot I saw a male striking down on a smaller bee, possibly a mining bee, and literally destroyed the mining bee's left wing - essentially a death sentence. Wool-carder bee males have five spikes on the tail end of their abdomen which (obviously) can inflict significantly harm to other bugs.

This one was chilling peacefully on a house leek (Sempervivum tectorum) though.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51346773255/

Another of the same species from the same group of flowers: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51337910630/

Quite uncharacteristically, this male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) sat still more than mere seconds on the hairy leaf of a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) which allowed me to take more than one photo. This is a composite, stacked from two photos, but Zerene Stacker didn't like combining them into a good-looking image so I did it manually in Photoshop instead.

In this shot, you can quite clearly see a couple of the five spikes which the male has on the end his abdomen and which are used as weapons to chase of anybody not a female of his species form "his" flower. These have nothing to do with a stinger which is a modified ovipositor and thus something that only females have.

Seeing the flowers on this house leek (Sempervivum tectorum), my first thought is how much it remind me of fireworks - one beautiful explosion of pink.

The bee pollinating it here is a female European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum)

Really pleased with how this male European carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) on a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) was cool enough to allow me to get close enough to snap several shots with the Canon MP-E65 mm lens on the camera without flying away.

This was taken at 1:1 magnification which means the front of the lens was 101 mm / 4" from the bee's (cool-looking) eyes. Part 1 was significantly closer (2:1) and can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53969775482/

If you want to see more shots of this bee - probably my favourite insect - then I have an album with, at the time of posting, 81 shots of them here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

Spotted in Brittany. Anthidium manicatum.

Really pleased with how this male European carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) on a lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) was cool enough to allow me to get close enough to snap several shots with the Canon MP-E65 mm lens on the camera without flying away.

This was taken at 2:1 magnification which means the front of the lens was just 63 mm / 2.5" from the bee's (cool-looking) eyes.

If you want to see more shots of this bee - probably my favourite insect - then I have an album with, at the time of posting, 81 shots of them here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

The females (like this one) of the European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) line their nest chambers with hair they gather from plants. And I can't think of a hairier plant they can find in Sweden than lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina) so this little lady is definitely in the right place here.

This male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) spotted the female on "his" lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina) while patrolling and immediately pounced on the opportunity and mated with her.

Depending on how you look at it, you could say that the males don't have too impressive endurance but also that they are effective as they are done within like five seconds so I had to be quick to get in close with the camera. Fortunately, things worked out fine for me this time.

For an album with almost 80 high-res shots of these little beauties, have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/

Unlike with most species of bees (there are 20,000+ species in the world), the male of the European carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) is significantly larger than the female.

This is a result of their peculiar behaviour where the males chase away anything that isn't a female of his species from "his" plants. And since when chasing away, size is an advantage, evolution has led to larger males.

But that's not all it has equipped the males with. Since stingers in bees and wasps are modified ovipositors, ie lady parts, no male has a stinger. But some sort of weaponry could be helpful when chasing away other bugs so the males of this species actually have five black spikes on their tail which they use as weapons when defending their turf - three of them are clearly visible in this photo.

The focus on this female European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) isn't perfect, but I still like the shot as it shows how physical the gathering of pollen really is. Look on the right side here and you'll see pollen flying as she vibrates to get the pollen of the flower.

And since this species belongs to Megachilidae, she doesn't store the pollen in pollen baskets on her hind thighs, but instead use (similar) hairs on the underside of the abdomen.