This is basically a quick note for me to remember which bees visited us these last years. As I am keen on promoting pollinator-friendly gardens, this may be interesting for someone else. Maybe.

Context: We moved to this house two springs ago. It has a ~4*8 m garden and is located in a residential area with allotments (great for bees) nearby.

2018: The garden was a perfect lawn without a single flower + a patch of bamboo and a patch of bird-of-paradise flowers (useless for native bees). I don’t remember seeing any bee that year. I stopped watering the lawn (makes no sense in Seville to have a water-consuming lawn).

2019: We dig out the bamboo and the bird-of-paradise flowers (harder than I would ever though!) and planted Rosemary, Lavanda, Rockroses, and Teucrium. I also removed a 1*4m patch of lawn to plant some vegetables. I added vertical bamboo reeds (I had plenty!) in the soil and add a few old logs in a corner.

Bees:

1. Eucera sp. Early season in lavanda.
2. Chalicodoma sicula in Teucrium.
3. Megachile sp nesting in the ground (in a pot!) Entering leaves, Honeybee size.
4. Ceratina curcubitina (?) nesting in the vertical bamboo reeds.
5. Holpitis sp. hovering around the logs.
6. Xylocopa violacea Loves teucrium. Males using some horizontal bamboo reeds to sleep.
7. Apis mellifera Rare, in teucrium.

2020: I installed a couple of bee hotels for megachilids, let the lawn go wild. The grama is still languishing, now intermixed with clover (Trifolium repens), melilotus (Melilotus sp.), and other annuals well-adapted to our climatic conditions.

Bees: (Eucera, Chalicodoma and the big Megachile not seen again)

1. Xylocopa violacea lots in teucrium (March-April), and females using the new bee hotels and expanding the canes.
2. Anthophora sp. Rare in teucrium.
3. Osmia bicornis mainly in Cistus albidus. 3 females, 4 nests and 2 not finished.
4. Hylaeus sp. visiting broccoli. I think they nest in the vertical reeds also.
5. Ceratina curcubitina (?). A real explosion this year. All vertical canes full. Cistus crispus, teucrium, broccoli, strawberries, Melilotus, clover.
6. Anthidium manicatum (?) in Teucrium. Males patroling and females gathering leave hairs. Earl morning to late evening (May).
7. Anthidiellum breviusculum (?) in clover.
8. Hoplitis sp1. Again in the logs. Also in Lavanda from time to time. No idea where are they nesting.
9. Andrena sp. Very rare (seen three times maybe?). In C. crispus and once I saw it digging in the vegetable plot, but never again.
10. Apis mellifera in Teucrium and clover. More common this year, to my disgrace.
11. Lasioglossum sp (the golden one, similar to gemmeus) in Brocoli.
12. Megachile sp. in Melilotus A very small one close to M. apicalis. It nests in the vertical reeds and uses petals to close them.
13. Hoplitis sp2. Late season. Looks like adunca, but I have no echium nearby. Active at dusk, but no nests completed yet (still active, but is already 30ºC). UPDATE: two nests colsed + two not finished by 7 June

Maybe I am missing some super tiny bees, as the ceratinas + hylaeus + lasioglossums sometimes fly fast and who knows what else is mixed there. All ID’s are mine, so maybe some are incorrect.

13 species in 2019, 16 overall! Looks like megachilids are over-represented. I miss more Andrenas, and I did not see a single parasite yet. No bumblebees, but this is expected as they are rare in Seville. Next year, more!