During my last farm survey in St-Croix, the trees and shrubs in the peripheries of the farm were on fire. I don’t know what caused the fire…maybe some hooligans intentionally started it, maybe the land owners did, or maybe it was just caused by drought. Whatever the cause may be, the fire caused something quite interesting to happen: I think the bees were escaping the fire, and flying into my bee bowls (yellow, blue and white bowls filled with soapy water). The reason I say this is because I found about 6-7 Megachile lanata (leafcutter bees) in my bee bowls. **By the way, this species is another new record for the island** 6-7 collected in one day is quite a lot, compared to the single M. lanata I’ve collected in PR since the beginning of my study. I don’t know if the bees were flying out of the fire, and spotting my bee bowls and landing in them thinking they were a flower (the basic way the bee bowls work), or if they were flying into the bowls in search of water because they were dehydrated, or even maybe to extinguish themselves.

So, I know that all sounds very strange, but here’s why I think the bees may have been on fire:

Singed

Not singed

Isn’t that funny? I might be completely wrong, but it seems plausible…right?