With all the beautiful flowers in bloom, I have been enjoying taking some photographs of the pollinating insects in the garden. My goal is to not only increase recognition skills of good bugs vs. bad, but also learn identification of the male and female within the species. I ran across this beautiful bee or wasp (lower left) the other day and am trying to identify him proper. Since we have some beekeepers and enthusiasts out there, maybe you can help me. Have I stumbled upon a male Agapostemon splendens? In addition, is that his female counterpart above?
 |
| Beautiful Bee or Wasp? |
Thanks so much,
Denise, Beds 25 & 29
2 comments:
Denise - An exerpt from "First Lessons in Beekeeping" by Keith Delaplane (UGA prof.): "... the visible mutation chartreuse is just one of many visible honey bee mutations, including ivory eyes, tan eyes, red eyes and cordovan body color. Because drones carry only one set of chromosomes, any recessive genes they carry are expressed because there are no dominant forms to mask them. Hence, visible recessive mutations show up first in drones." Having said all that, the photo in his book does NOT show the green thorax only green eyes. Looking at googled Agapostemon pix, I'd vote on it being that species and not Apis sp. IF Aga's are social bees like Apis's, that's not a 'he' because drones are the only 'he's' and drones get their hees by mating with queenie and then buzzing off and dying after mating. And drones don't forage. And an egg-laying queenie doesn't forage because she's heavy with eggs and stays home. So, it's early and I'm going to read up on Aga's to see where the errors are in my thinking. THANK YOU for sharing this! And your photography is top-notch and beautiful. Also, photography is also about capturing what others don't see. We never would've seen this without your eye.
Rita, thank you so much for this information and the nice compliment! I have never seen a bee like this before and so love learning something new. I can't wait to happen by one of the visible honey bee mutations. Insects are so interesting to watch and see their habits in motion. Our garden is like a buffet of fine entertainment, grin!
Post a Comment