Female mining bees stock each cell with pollen and nectar collected from flowers. When each cell is provisioned, she deposits an egg on the food mass. The larva which hatches from the egg consumes the pollen and nectar, changes into a pupa and finally becomes an adult bee. The adult passes the winter below ground in the burrow site. The next spring adults emerge, mate, and females dig their burrows.
Numbers can increase dramatically from one season to the next.
Many wasp species also are solitary and nest in the ground. Their life patterns are similar to that of the mining bee. After preparing a burrow, the female wasp stocks it with provisions, which consist of insect prey rather than pollen and nectar. She deposits one or more eggs on the food, seals it and departs. Some species don't seal the nest permanently but return repeatedly with additional prey as the larvae grow.