‘It was spring on Wolwekraal Nature Reserve in the arid Karoo, and the bare patches of ground were alive with solitary bee activity. Besides the busy work of Tetraloniella brevikeraia — the short-horned long-horned bees — other solitary bees were active, too. …’
Thus begins another remarkable article by Karin Sternberg on her website Wild Bees, where she records the results of her research on wild bees in the Wolwekraal Nature Reserve outside Prince Albert in the Karoo.
Titled ‘Stone-hard nests in the Karoo: Observing Megachile taraxia’, she writes about discovering a a mud-nesting or ‘dauber’ bee which builds exposed nests of mud on rock surfaces which had previoiusly only been identified in Namaqualand and in Gauteng.
She concludes: ‘Watching these bees at work left me with a sense of awe for their resilience and ingenuity. In the middle of the Karoo, on bare stones near a wind-swept deflation hollow and exposed to temperature extremes, a species so seldom recorded constructed homes almost as enduring as the stone they were built on and carried on its quiet cycle of life.
‘To stumble upon Megachile taraxia here, in numbers and with nests so well hidden, felt like uncovering a treasure. It’s one that reminds us how much there is still to discover, and how much depends on noticing the small, stone-hard wonders at our feet.’
The article contains the following charming addendum:
Field Notes from Wolwekraal
A giant leopard tortoise, Stigmochelys pardalis pardalis, on the Wolwekraal Nature Reserve. (Karin Sternberg)
‘While documenting the story of Megachile taraxia, I often found myself lying so still and so quietly that it felt as though I had become invisible to the creatures around me, or perhaps absorbed into the very terroir of the place. On several occasions, giant tortoises walked past within only a few metres, undisturbed by my presence. Once, a grey mongoose passed less than a metre away, its nearness betrayed only by the scattering of small stones shifting beneath its paws. These encounters made me feel part of the ecology of Wolwekraal, allowing me to observe not only the focal species but also other elements of the ecosystem.’
FEATURED IMAGE: A female Megachile taraxia exits a mud nest she is building on Wolwekraal. (Karin Sternberg)