Not much to say…
Spring is here!
Category: bees (Page 15 of 29)
We have been seeing this curious insect every year in February and March in our spring wildflowers.
(February 18, 2015)
It regularly visits the desert marigolds.
(March 4, 2009)
Although it looks like a wasp or maybe a flower fly, it is a bee. In fact, it is a cuckoo bee, Xeromelecta californica.
What is a cuckoo bee?
Instead of making a nest and gathering pollen of their own, cuckoo bees sneak into the nests made and provisioned by digger bees (Anthophora sp.. especially Anthrophora urbana.) The females kill the eggs the mother digger bee laid and lay their own eggs on the food instead. The cuckoo bees then fly away and the nest eventually produces cuckoo bees rather than digger bees.
Ah, the drama that unfolds in one small suburban yard.
Have you ever discovered a cuckoo bee? What kinds are found where you live?
What better way to ring out 2014 than with some photographs of insects?
Looking back over the last twelve months, I found I haven’t taken as many photographs of insects as in years past. I did, however, take quite a few of true bugs this year, like these boxelder bugs.
Not the best shot, but I thought these milkweed bugs were amusing.
Maybe it was color that caught my eye, as with this orange on orange composition.
Bees are always fun, although they are usually in motion. Check out this leafcutter bee collecting pollen.
She has filled her scopa (hairs on the underside of the abdomen)!
This one is reminding us that bees feed on nectar as well as collect pollen.
Parasitic wasps can be colorful.
Paper wasps sometimes take a break to do some cleaning.
What year is complete without a ladybug?
But the butterflies always give the brightest displays. This is a paper kite.
Here is a white peacock catching some rays.
You can get some beautiful close-ups in butterfly exhibits.
The unexpected shots in your own back yard, however, are always the most treasured.
Do you have a post of your favorite nature photographs, too? Feel free to leave a link in the comments.
Happy New Year!
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.