jmorth said:Familiar in and out behavior of Carden Bee > 
The wool carder bees are interesting. I have only seen the two introduced species Anthidium manicatum and A. oblongatum so far. If I recall those two species can be differentiated by the color of the "little knobs" where the wings attach to the body.
If you have any fuzzy leaved plants like lamb's ear, pearly everlasting, or prairie sage you can see how they got their common name "wool carder". They scrape at the fuzz on the leaves and gather it up to line their nests.
One on my prairie sage gathering "wool".
Here are pictures from Google of people "carding wool" by scraping it through brushes to align the fibers before spinning.
https://www.google.com/search?...
On a related note regarding them, and the European paper wasps.....and the cabbage whites. It is somewhat disappointing that many of the species I see the most often and in the greatest numbers are the introduced species. I don't think I have ever seen any of the other white butterflies, only cabbage whites. The European paper wasps are the wasps I see the most. The Asian lady beetles are by far the lady beetles I see the most. Japanese beetles are my most abundant beetle of the summers. Then there are the ever present mobs of introduced house sparrows also. Maybe it is because I live fairly close to a major metropolitan area?
