>A large number--perhaps 500+-- specimens of a colonial-nesting bee(?)
>had set up "housekeeping" in the boards on the west side of the shed.
>The bees were perhaps 10mm long and 1.5mm in diameter, were very dark,
>(probably black or very dark green), and may have been mating at times.
>I remember a large number of them flying about, but what I remember
>most vividly is that if one looked closely at the holes which they
>had made in the wood, you often saw a pair of compound eyes at the
>top of the hole "looking back" at you.  The bees appeared to be in
>individuals holes though the holes were close together...1 cm or
>less (?) at times.
>
>I never attempted to identify the bee (or wasp?) at that time, and I
>realize that my observations are tempered by time.  Can you venture an
>opinion with respect to the species?
 
Sounds more like a small Sphecid wasp (a Pemphredonine) than any
bees...that's not really the habit of any bees, and especially not with
that coloration or elongate body shape. Hard to say, but that's my guess.
 
Doug Yanega      Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA     phone (217) 244-6817, fax (217) 333-4949
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82