Megachile species, m, south africa, kruger
Kruger Park! South Africa! This is the first specimen we have put up from our recent trip to survey bees in Kruger. At this point I am incompetent to tell the species apart (there are no field guides to bees Citizen), but I can tell you this is a Megachile in what appears to be the subgenus Eutricharaea. This group can be fairly "weedy" showing up in urban / disturbed area with some members forming a common set of species that have invaded continents around the world. In any case, this species is almost certainly native to the region and our hope is that with time we can put species names on such things. We will likely take a little DNA from them too. About 2/3rds the size of a honey bee.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know
" Ode on a Grecian Urn"
John Keats. Original public domain image from Flickr