The nesting habits of many Australian native bees are poorly known, with observations of nests being few and far in between. Here, I report three independent nesting aggregations of a native colletid bee Leioproctus (Leioproctus) plumosus, accompanied by videos of its nesting behaviour and photographs of its nesting substrate. These discoveries were made possible through the citizen science group ‘Bees in the burbs’. Despite extensive surveys in the region, the only nesting occurrences of L. plumosus have been found in domestic gardens, all in highly urbanised areas. With this species more frequently encountered in residential gardens, this suggests that despite evidence of ground-nesting bees being relatively disadvantaged by urban development due to replacement of bare ground with impervious surfaces, this species is able to still use residential areas for nesting. I propose potential explanations for this phenomenon, which includes new observations of commonly foraging on Callistemon – a popular tree in gardens and on nature strips. That this native bee’s nests appear to be associated with residential gardens provides both opportunities to engage citizen scientists in documenting and preserving native bee populations, but also indicates the threat ongoing urban development may pose.

中文翻译：

---

自然历史笔记：城市家庭花园支持本地蜜蜂 Leioproctus (Leioproctus) plumosus 的筑巢种群

许多澳大利亚本土蜜蜂的筑巢习惯鲜为人知，对巢穴的观察很少而且相差甚远。在这里，我报告了三个独立的原生 Colletid Bee Leioproctus (Leioproctus) plumosus的筑巢聚集体，并附有其筑巢行为的视频和筑巢基质的照片。这些发现是通过公民科学团体“Bees in the burbs”实现的。尽管在该地区进行了广泛的调查，但L. plumosus的唯一筑巢事件已在高度城市化地区的家庭花园中发现。由于该物种更频繁地出现在住宅花园中，这表明尽管有证据表明由于用不透水的表面取代裸露的地面，地面筑巢的蜜蜂相对处于不利地位，但该物种仍然能够使用住宅区筑巢。我提出了对这种现象的潜在解释，其中包括对通常在Callistemon上觅食的新观察- 这是一种在花园和自然地带上很受欢迎的树。这种本地蜜蜂的巢穴似乎与住宅花园有关，这为公民科学家记录和保护本地蜜蜂种群提供了机会，但也表明正在进行的城市发展可能构成威胁。