Yard and neighborhood, part 1...

[senoritafish]

Darn , had to reboot my computer becuase something locked up, so I'm a bit late.

Before we went on a walk yesterday, I was watching the cosmos in the front yard. Along with the normal honeybees and skipper butterflies, I saw the loveliest emerald green native bees. You could tell they were bees becasue they collected pollen on their hind legs just like honeybees.




What was interesting was there was another bee that looked very similar about the head and thorax, emerald green, but had black and pale yellow striped abdomens. Quite often, when the green bees landed in a flower, the striped ones would jump on them and chase them away. Otherwise theyj just hovered near the flowers and seldom landed on them. They were too fast for me, slow on the shutter button, to capture.

Comments

[poetpaladin.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there were emerald green native bees. What are they?

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

I don't know the species name or even the common name. I'm no entomologist, but they are shaped exactly the same and carry pollen on their hind legs in the same way. They're about a third of the size. Honeybees are only one of many species of bees, and they're native to Europe.