I have never seen bees eat any plant like this. There were two of them but one flew away before I got the photo.

I have never seen a bee eat any kind of plant. But today I saw a gray tree squirrel go down completely into a hole like a chipmunk and retrieve an acorn on two different occasions, and I had never seen that before either.
I do have carpenter bees that bore holes in wood, but I don't think they actually eat the wood, just leave a pile of sawdust behind.

Bee-zarre!

That is a carpenter bee I think, so maybe it's getting material for a nest or, thinks that's wood, or?

My guess is that the bee is after something in the wound. But that the plant was already wounded, I strongly do not think the bee did it, he is just using it. Maybe it is after the moisture?

There are leaf cutter bees that cut little circular notches in foliage to line their nests with. If you could I.D. the bee you might find out what it is doing there. I've never heard of a bee "eating" foliage for food. If the wound was exuding some sort of sweet sap perhaps the bee was lapping it up. Even that would be a new one for me......Maryl

That doesn't appear to be a leaf cutter bee, but here is an interesting article on them.
http://permaculturenews.org/20...

I can't see the insect in quite enough detail but is it possible it is not a bee but a bee lookalike? For example:

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/20...

That is possible. You learn something new every single day.

Some species of Bees will cover their bore holes (nests) with masticated plant material.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/images...

I put out bee hotels this year and I've caught a few bees that look like carpenter bees making leafy green plugs. I am not sure if they are true carpenter bees, or a type of leaf cutter that mimics carpenter bees in appearance.

I believe carpenter bees do use plant stems to shelter in and still think that's a possibility here, though a daylily leaf seems pretty unlikely!

Cross posted with you, permascapes. Welcome to ATP! and that's interesting about the masticated leaf plugs. Sounds more likely than my thought.

Thanks for the welcome.
I've been looking at the daylilies on this site for a few months now (my new obsession) and finally made an account for the forums. So here I am!

Here is a bee I caught making a nest, and the plug she left behind.

permascapes,

Permascapes!!!

Hi Sara, to ATP.

Great pictures! Glad you're here.