During our chat I mentioned to Charlie that one of our Old World Anthidium species, A. manicatum, shows up in our garden regularly in summer, and that I'd found this species also some years ago when living more southern, and back then had been able to photograph the copula. I remember this hot summer's day very well: I was jumping around in the meadow next to my parents' home trying to get a decent photo of a couple. These bees are d a m n fast, especially when it's hot and the sun is shining, they copulate only a few seconds and then take off to another flower. Back then I had a Minolta X-700 without motor drive or winder, so mostly one picture for one copula was possible, then I had to spot the next pair and position myself and the camera anew, focus and shoot... I remember being drenched in sweat, but as you can see, some photos I got were not too bad.
Apologize the quality, but the pictures you are seeing here, are just bad scans made from the original slides some years ago with my office scanner, however, they show what's going on. I hope to find time to digitalize these slides in better quality some day. But till then I thought I should post these, especially for Charlie, so that he can see I'm not making up stories.
Charlie, who meanwhile was able to observe the territorial behaviour and copula of the Anthidium in his garden too, told me that he found citations that the European A. manicatum was introduced to NA in the 1960ies and was recorded from Idaho and BC, Canada. I found a reference (JAYCOX 1967) which reports it from the State of New York.
As you might see, the male in this Anthidium species is bigger than the female, which is not often the case in bees. When looking closely in the pictures below, he seems to be nibbling on the base of her antenna while she is raising her front legs in what appears to be a "hurrah gesture".
Now, isn't that cute! 
(The photos are turned 180°, so actually the couple was hanging upside-down on these flowers of Ballota nigra)
--Betty
Very nice photos, even for scans there Betty, though I know little to nothing about bees, other than the little boogers will sting you. 