Post #1141031

I was just outside in the forest planting some trees and I heard a bunch of buzzing long before I saw anything. Instinctively, I looked up, but the swarm was flying just an inch above the ground. There were hundreds of little bees, doing a zig-zag pattern in maybe an 8' x 8' area. After watching them for a minute, I ran inside to grab a cup to try to catch one, because they were moving way too fast, and never landing, so I couldn't figure out what they were, and I'd never seen the behavior before. By the time I got back with a cup, just a few minutes later, there were probably only a few dozen left, and by the time I caught one they had almost all disappeared. I never saw one actually go anywhere, but I think they just all disappeared into holes below the leaf litter of the forest floor. I let this one loose before the last of the others disappeared, and it disappeared into the leaf litter, too. I think it was a cellophane bee, or something in the Colletid bees group. I'm honestly not sure what they were doing, but if I'd have been 5 minutes earlier, or 5 minutes later, I'd have never seen, or heard it.