Bee among daylily stamens
Megachile sp.
Leafcutter bee · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 12 July 2026
A leafcutter bee hanging almost upside down off a curled daylily filament in the July border, wings half-open. Leafcutters are solitary bees of gardens and meadows across the continent, nesting in hollow stems and old beetle holes, and a daylily bed in July is full of them.
The black-and-orange banding narrows it to a leafcutter, one of the Megachile, which carry pollen on a brush of hairs under the abdomen rather than on the legs - so the belly is where to look for the load. Daylily anthers are enormous by garden standards, and a small bee working one comes away coated.
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