Leafcutter bee (?)

That's what I think this lovely little native bee is - you can't see its beautiful stripes in this shot (I hope it comes back, so that I can blip its body another day), but I liked this shot showing its powerful mandibles (for cutting pieces out of leaves for its nest and for sealing the cells). The main doubt I have over its identity is that these bees carry their pollen under their abdomen and I didn't see any evidence of that on this one. Native bees can be very hard to identify! I have seen several similar but subtly different varieties in my garden.

When I was stalking this bee with my camera this afternoon, I noticed not one but two large mantids doing the same! (without the camera though). I rightly or wrongly, depending on your view, intervened and relocated the mantids to the other side of the garden! They can eat all the European bees they like, but please don't eat the native bees!

See those big mandibles

I'm very tired from a late night and too much heat (Autumn and rain can't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned. I'm well and truly over Summer) so I'm straight off to bed - will try to catch up on journals tomorrow.