Waking up for winter and odd residents in the soil

A couple of the mesembs that I grow are completely dormant in the hottest months of the year. Some of them come from a part of the country that receives very little rain but there is sea fog, which supplies most of the water that keeps Conophytums alive. Summer is drawing to a close and I noticed that they were starting to break out of their dormancy: there was a small crack in the casings of last year's leaves. While they are dormant, they should not be watered but once there are signs of new growth, it's time to give water. I did so yesterday and by this morning there was noticeable swelling of the leaves and further cracking of the shells forming a casing. At first, only the largest central casing cracked but they all opened after they were watered

Conophytum minutum: the largest centre leaf has divided into two

Conophytum obcordellum were peeping out all along but swelled noticeably overnight

Conophytum Bilobum has been renewing its leaves for a while already but I expected that, they grow in a different area and didn't go into total dormancy as the others did

These conophytums are still very much encased but I think that the water and cooler weather will get them growing now.

Phyllobolus digitatus are still very much asleep but I will start watering them too. Last year, I waited too long to start watering them and that delayed their flowering.

On another note, I saw an Amegilla bee hovering around the window and come inside then disappear. When I looked for it, I noticed the hole in the tray I am growing seedlings in and then heard some buzzing sounds so that is its burrow.

Amegilla bees are solitary and don't make honey but they are very important pollinators of many indigenous plants. They have black and white band in their bodies and look like this:

I'll be curious to see what happens next. I wanted to transplant those seedlings but now I will leave them so that the bee can finish raising its grub, which it feeds with the pollen it collects