A little while ago I spent about 20 minutes trying to snap a picture of these native bees that were working our black sage. It was no easy feat. Most of the shots show a blur or two. That is another bee in the bottom left part of the picture.
They are about half the size of a honey bee and are much faster - like a humming bird compared to a sparrow. Another thing that reminded me of a humming bird is that they were chasing each other all over the place. When one would land on a flower another would quickly come by to harass it.
If I see them again, I'll try to get a better shot. Any chance someone knows what it is?
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you can try searching for "melipona" if you're in america :p
ReplyDeletemeliponas are bees without sting widely used by native americans principally in Central America.
salud!
Thanks for the melipona tip. I checked it out and these bees are different. But the melipona reading was really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI need to find a couple of free hours to track this bee down.
thanks!
I did a little research and I think this might be a Melissodes communis.
ReplyDeleteHere are some other pictures of the Melissodes communis:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/79490/bgimage
Here is a link to a description that is too dense for me to get through.
http://stri.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Melissodes+communis