Honey Bee and Colorful Flowers (Milkweed)
All images on this web site Copyright © 1998-2004, Dick Locke. All Rights Reserved. Contact and Image Use Information
Golden Acres Honey is using the above image in their trade booth. Another Bee Picture here: Texas Wildflower Gallery 2005 - Page 2
for less-cropped version of above
Below: Robber Bee and other bee pictures
This next bee is "robbing" nectar from the flower. Thanks to Conor Cahill (conorinthejungle@hotmail.com) and the entomology mailing list, this has been identified as a Carpenter Bee. See the end of this page for more info.
 Male Carpenter Bee "Robbing" Nectar (Xylocopa virginica (Linnaeus)) from the Corolla by biting through the flower. |  See this bee on my Morning in The Woodlands page |  Green Bee: Agapostemon, a sweat bee (Halictidae, Halictini) Details for above: Nikon N90s, Nikon 105 f2.8 AF macro lens, 1/60s @ f4, aperture priority mode using center-weighted metering, Fuji Velvia ASA 50 film, usual processing in Photoshop. |
 Honey Bees |  Click to see this bee on my D100 page |  Bee View #2 |
 Bee Close Up |  Lots of Bees on my Flower Pages |
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Robber Bee info: Pollinators such as bees won't do it for nothing, so flowers provide a rather energy-expensive 'bribe'--the nectar. Obviously the flower doesn't 'want' to hand out nectar to insects that aren't good pollinators. In theory therefore they adapt to keep out the bad pollinators, and allow the good ones in. The good ones tend to be big hairy ones--they will catch the most pollen and spread it around. It's therefore quite common to see flowers with a long narrow trumpet shape--the nectaries (the bits that secrete the nectar) are way at the bottom of that. In order to get at the nectar the bee has to struggle down and stick it's long tongue down but is forced to rub pretty hard against the stamens. If you look down the trumpet of a flower like this you should see the stamens--the bits that produce the pollen--on the top side of the flower about half way down. In order to get to the nectar a large bee has to rub past this. Among the various different species of bee there are those that have long tongues and those with short tongues. I can't pretend to be an expert on bees at all (I only ever worked on flies), but what you seem to have on your flower is a species of bee with a short tongue but strong mouthparts. Basically it's tongue is too short to get at the nectaries via the front door (I guess it would be regarded as a 'bad pollinator--maybe it isn't very hairy or whatever, I don't know). To get to the nectar therefore it bites through the petals and can lap up the nectar. Of course this is no use for the flower because the bee doesn't do any pollination for the flower.
Scholarly Paper on this topic: Nectar Robbing Paper
This page features bee/wasp close-up (macro or micro, in photo lingo) shots.
Unless Otherwise Noted: All are from Kodak E-200 slide film, Nikon N90s hand held, Nikon 105mm macro lens, with flash, ~ f32. Flash is a must for fast-moving critters.
Copyright © 2002, 2003 Dick Locke. All Rights Reserved.
Contact and Image Use Information