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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 19:23:28 GMT -5
This summer, I spent some time photographing the bees. I was working 7x12+ hour days because of the pandemic, with often fewer than 10 people in a 150,000 sq ft building. These little walks kept my last shreds of sanity together (I think). here are my new friends: Long-horned bee (male): DSC_0736_Green-eyed golden bee (Long-horned bee) by Stephan T., on Flickr Sweat bee: DSC_0180_Sweat bee close-up by Stephan T., on Flickr Leaf-cutter bees: DSC_0501_Nature special on a flower by Stephan T., on Flickr Metallic sweat bee: DSC_0516_Tiny bee foraging by Stephan T., on Flickr Cuckoo bee: DSC_0014_Cuckoo bee (close-up) by Stephan T., on Flickr Cuckoo bee: DSC_0014_Cuckoo bee (close-up) by Stephan T., on Flickr Yellow-fronted bumblebee (male): DSC_2561_Yellow-fronted bumblebee on lavender by Stephan T., on Flickr Valley carpenter bee (female): DSC_0030_Female valley carpenter bee by Stephan T., on Flickr Black-tailed bumblebee DSC_0524_Black-tailed bumblebee by Stephan T., on Flickr And my favorite... Metallic green sweat bee (male): DSC_0359_Metallic green sweat bee by Stephan T., on Flickr Hope you enjoyed
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Post by rockjunquie on Sept 23, 2020 19:52:38 GMT -5
Great pictures. How do you know so much about bees? I would have thought a couple of them were hornets. As far as I have ever really noticed, there is one bee- a bumble bee. Thank you for enlightening me.
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Post by knave on Sept 23, 2020 20:31:25 GMT -5
And not a single apis mellifera! Beautiful photos, thanks so much for sharing them!
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pizzano
Cave Dweller
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,390
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Post by pizzano on Sept 23, 2020 21:15:52 GMT -5
Very good photography........obviously not shot with any average cell phone camera....lol....I didn't realize until I met a land owner we worked with to survey his citrus grove acres, that was also a serious for profit beekeeper, that there are as many as 4000 native species of bees here in North America, and only a very very small percentage of them are classified as gathers honey makers, most of which the most productive are not native.........I'm guilty of incorrectly ID'ing many as wasps........!
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Post by jasoninsd on Sept 23, 2020 22:21:06 GMT -5
Those are some amazing pictures! I'm glad you found a way to keep your sanity.
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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 22:21:26 GMT -5
Great pictures. How do you know so much about bees? I would have thought a couple of them were hornets. As far as I have ever really noticed, there is one bee- a bumble bee. Thank you for enlightening me. Thanks! 😁 I’ve really gotten into native bees over the last few years. They are diverse, beautiful, and many of them are more efficient pollinators than honeybees. Most are also solitary, and therefore far less likely to sting. For many of them, I can partway ID them, and then I get help on iNaturalist. The main distinguishing features for bees vs wasps are the waist and the antennae. Wasps generally have more-slender waists. Bees tend to have elbowed antennae that point downward (antennae are their main sensory organ, which includes taste). TBH, I initially thought the cuckoo bee was a wasp. To further complicate the ID issue, there are also hoverflies and bee flies that can be convincing mimics. The main way to tell is that they have 2 (not 4) wings and very short antennae. Bee flies have very long, almost Daliesque legs. FYI, many of these bees are considerably smaller than honeybees. Sweat bees are as small as 4-5mm. Even some of the bumbles are small. The miracles of macro photography. The carpenter bee is huge: over an inch. You can hear them from 20-30 yards away. To trifle t this, their scientific name was recently changed from Xylocopa varipuncta to X. sonorensis (as in sonorous).
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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 22:22:27 GMT -5
And not a single apis mellifera! Beautiful photos, thanks so much for sharing them! I’ll post some honeybee pics soon. 😁
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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 22:25:24 GMT -5
Very good photography........obviously not shot with any average cell phone camera....lol....I didn't realize until I met a land owner we worked with to survey his citrus grove acres, that was also a serious for profit beekeeper, that there are as many as 4000 native species of bees here in North America, and only a very very small percentage of them are classified as gathers honey makers, most of which the most productive are not native.........I'm guilty of incorrectly ID'ing many as wasps........! Thank you. Yes. Only colonial bees are honey makers. Most natives (except bumbles) are solitary (but sometimes still semi-social).
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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 22:26:15 GMT -5
Those are some amazing pictures! I'm glad you found a way to keep your sanity. A few shreds of it, at least. 😁 Thanks
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Sept 23, 2020 23:03:01 GMT -5
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing! I love bumblebees. I love watching them, especially on snapdragons because they're the only bee heavy enough to open the flowers of the snappers. We have some huge black bumblebees here, but I've never looked up what they're actually called.
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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 23:15:49 GMT -5
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing! I love bumblebees. I love watching them, especially on snapdragons because they're the only bee heavy enough to open the flowers of the snappers. We have some huge black bumblebees here, but I've never looked up what they're actually called. Bumbles are some of my favorites as well. Not familiar enough with AZ bees to help ID. Our only all-black ones are carpenters (the females, anyway. The males are golden and nick-named teddy bears).
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Post by mohs on Sept 23, 2020 23:18:48 GMT -5
those are fine pictures stephan and it sounds like you were just as busy as a bee at work good for you
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agatemaggot
Cave Dweller
Member since August 2006
Posts: 2,195
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Post by agatemaggot on Sept 23, 2020 23:24:55 GMT -5
Watched Bumble bees working morning glories on my porch railing and noticed they will only enter the same flower once but the next bee won't hesitate. They must have scent glans on their feet that tells them what flower they have worked !
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Post by stephan on Sept 23, 2020 23:31:32 GMT -5
Btw, on the mating leaf-cutter bee pic, did anyone notice the stalking, opportunistic crab spider at about 9 o’clock? While they can actually take small bees as prey, this was not a successful ambush.
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Post by Pat on Sept 24, 2020 0:08:53 GMT -5
What an education! We get honeybees, bumblebees, and carpenter bees. I like bees. They seem friendly, whereas wasps/hornets/yellow jackets seem aggressive and mean.
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Post by stephan on Sept 24, 2020 0:52:09 GMT -5
What an education! We get honeybees, bumblebees, and carpenter bees. I like bees. They seem friendly, whereas wasps/hornets/yellow jackets seem aggressive and mean. Hornets and yellow jackets certainly are. Many of the solitary ones are quite docile if you are not their prey (usually a very specific insect). I was less than 18” from this great black wasp when I photographed her: DSC_0620_Great black wasp by sdttds, on Flickr She looks bad-ass (but with long “eye-lashes”), but did not care about me. Many wasps are also quite tiny. Some of these are responsible for forming plant galls, like this red cone oak gall (how they came up with that name is a mystery...): DSC_0777_Red cone galls on Valley oak leaf by sdttds, on Flickr
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Post by RickB on Sept 24, 2020 6:05:58 GMT -5
Thanks for posting the photos. I didn't realize that there were that many varieties around. Used to get stung by them when I was a youngster while trying to catch and put them in jars. Rocks were safer to catch although I have had several injuries while trying to catch them.
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agatemaggot
Cave Dweller
Member since August 2006
Posts: 2,195
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Post by agatemaggot on Sept 24, 2020 10:10:25 GMT -5
Stephan, Nice spotting on that Crab Spider, it was really blending in !
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Post by miket on Sept 24, 2020 13:46:18 GMT -5
Fantastic pictures! Thanks for sharing, sir.
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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 27, 2020 0:56:26 GMT -5
Was looking at some photos in my computer today and ran across photo of this bee. Thought it looked similar to the first photo in your thread. It has long "horns" alright, but seems a tad bit fuzzier. Makes sense this is some kind of digger bee, as that's what it was doing. Photo taken in the desert out at Ocotillo Wells, which is east of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
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