So, bug experts,
does this archive photo show a bumble bee or a carpenter bee?
Just for fun, here are some different kinds of bees caught in slow motion.
Shiny green bees like this are called sweat bees, family Halictidae.
For more extensive information about the sweat bee life cycle.
Did anyone have any ideas what the little bee was doing in the photos from two weeks ago?
Bees sometimes gather a number of different materials from leaves, including water, resin or sap. Because the plant is infested with lace bugs, which produce honeydew like aphids, I suspect this bee was licking honeydew from the brittlebush leaf. It is likely an example of an insect often considered to be a pest supplying the needs of an insect considered to be beneficial. Isn’t nature wonderfully complex?