REALLY tiny green bee in a morning glory

[DanK]

I went to look at a morning glory after lunch and found this tiny green sweat bee deep in the flower, face down. I ran to get my gear and took a few shots as she turned around. This was one of the smallest I have seen--not terribly short by sweat bee standards, but I doubt it was more than 1 or 1.5 mm wide--and only the second green species I have photographed. This was with a 100mm lens and only a 20mm tube, so I had to crop by about 40%. I ran to get a longer tube, but it takes so long with my rig to change (take off the monopod, loosen the tripod ring, swap tubes, move the flash bracket to adjust for the longer length, readjust the flash position, put the monopod back on) that she had moved on by the time I got back. My usual bug setup: 1/125, f/13, diffused flash.

The yellow dots are pollen grains, I think, not any kind of flare. A few are near the plane of focus, and you can see the knobby surface. The white is the anthers, sticking so far forward of the bug that they were completely OOF.

C&C welcome, as always.

[Bobobird]

Wow!

[Kodiak]

tiny green bee

Green? green… possibly has not reached a given degree of ripeness!

How tiny was it?

[DanK]

Green? green… possibly has not reached a given degree of ripeness!

How tiny was it?

I am guessing maybe 1 mm by 5mm, but it's hard to know estimate when they are so small and things are moving so fast. (the flower was blowing around in the wind, to top it all.)

There are other green species too. Here is another, somewhat larger and plumper species that is green on the thorax but not the abdomen:

[Kodiak]

There are other green species too.

Now this one looks like a bee! …in green…

Cool, I'm learning.

[Rebel]

The first image is amazing, I didn't even know green bees existed.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[IzzieK]

I am with Matt...excellent shot but I haven't seen a green bee before...

[bnnrcn]

Super image

[ied]

Beautiful image- vivid colouring.

Irene

[ST1]

The first image is amazing, I didn't even know green bees existed.

That's just what I was thinking.

[DanK]

Thanks everyone. Sweat bees are quite common, at least on this side of the pond, but they escape notice because they are mostly small. Just hang out and wait anywhere that there are other pollinators, like honeybees, and with patience, you may see some.

[JBW]

I went to look at a morning glory after lunch and found this tiny green sweat bee deep in the flower, face down. I ran to get my gear and took a few shots as she turned around. This was one of the smallest I have seen--not terribly short by sweat bee standards, but I doubt it was more than 1 or 1.5 mm wide--and only the second green species I have photographed. This was with a 100mm lens and only a 20mm tube, so I had to crop by about 40%. I ran to get a longer tube, but it takes so long with my rig to change (take off the monopod, loosen the tripod ring, swap tubes, move the flash bracket to adjust for the longer length, readjust the flash position, put the monopod back on) that she had moved on by the time I got back. My usual bug setup: 1/125, f/13, diffused flash.

The yellow dots are pollen grains, I think, not any kind of flare. A few are near the plane of focus, and you can see the knobby surface. The white is the anthers, sticking so far forward of the bug that they were completely OOF.

C&C welcome, as always.

Okay is it a 'sweet' bee as in sugar sweet or a 'sweat' bee as in working out in the gym? Whatever the name it is a heck of a shot.

[DanK]

Okay is it a 'sweet' bee as in sugar sweet or a 'sweat' bee as in working out in the gym?

sweat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat_bee

[IzzieK]

Dan, have you ever tried looking at your shot here and then imagining or pretending the yellow background is a hat of a woman with the bee and the white foreground is the white face? It is really beautiful if you will superimpose a female face in that white space...just thinking out loud...