Shiny green bees like this are called sweat bees, family Halictidae.
For more extensive information about the sweat bee life cycle.
Category: bees (Page 23 of 29)
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?
When I popped out to take a photograph for Bug of the Week, I really didn’t expect to find much new.
But then I spotted this little solitary bee on a leaf.
It appeared to be doing something with its mouthparts on the leaf.
Do you have any idea what it might be doing? I’ll give you a hint, the plant is a brittlebush.
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.