Although the weather is uncomfortably hot for humans, things are still happening out in the garden here in Arizona.
The sunflowers we planted for the Great Sunflower Project have started to flower.
The bees can hardly wait.
A few days ago these bees were sleeping on a nearby milkweed plant.
Long-horned bees (tribe Eucerini in the family Apidae) are named for the long antennae present on males. They have a habit of clustering in groups to sleep overnight on plants.
I’m not sure what species these particular bees are. There are over 30 genera in the tribe Eucerini, including Melissodes (the long-horned bees), Peponapis and Xenoglossa (squash bees), and Svastra (sunflower bees).
Hopefully we’ll be seeing bees on the sunflowers soon.
