Newly Discovered Bee Species Creates Nests Out Of Rock

The bee species Anthophora pueblo excavate their nests in hard sandstone, such as here in Utah’s San Rafael Swell. Credit: Michael Orr/Utah State University

A bee that many experts are unfamiliar with creates nests out of rock hard sandstone, even when perfectly good soft dirt is available. However, it may not be a bad idea to put a little extra work into building nests out of solid rock when there are plenty of predators in the desert that cannot attack through a solid rock barrier.

The sandstone nests have been described as being similar to apartment units since each hole in the sandstone houses one single bee, indicating a natural preference for maintaining distance from their fellow worker bees. The sandstone offers many benefits over regular dirt. For example, given the solid state of the sandstone, each individual hole that houses a single bee can be passed onto their offspring. Therefore this species of bee, the Anthophora peublo, does not have to expend as much labor as a typical bee by repeatedly building nests out of soft dirt which will inevitably result in destruction.

What disadvantages could come with nesting in solid stone as opposed to loose dirt?