Bee and ??

[billtils]

There were lots of bees on the lavender today. I wasn't going to take any shots until I noticed that about half of them had these orange blobs on their legs or bodies. Explanations gratefully received - Geoff?

[Wavelength]

WOW.... just amazing beauty

[DanK]

A big wad of pollen.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[billtils]

"Wad" as in lots of microscopic particles of pollen sticking together? I did wonder about it being pollen but discounted it because of the size and fairly consistent location at the rear of the bodies. The main reason for discounting it as pollen was that it was all or nothing - there were no (relatively) little clumps. Unless the ones in the photograph had become attached in a visit to some other plant that had pollen masses of that size ...

EDIT: And of course given the source of the "Wad of pollen" answer I did what I perhaps should have done right at the start and searched for "bee" + "pollen". Indeed it be.


(Sorry - meant this to appear as Reply to Dan above).

[DanK]

Bill,

Most pollen-collecting bees have a number of different types of bristles on their legs that they use to compress the pollen into lumps. You can find a short description of relevant honeybee anatomy here. But sometimes they collect so much that it ends up all over the place, as was the case for this little native bee (not a honeybee) sitting on some yarrow in my back yard:



Most wasps, which are carnivores and don't get protein from pollen, lack the bristles on the legs, like this one:



But just to confuse things--at least, it confuses me--there are some parasitic bees that look more like wasps in this regard, like this one, which I think is a Nomada bee:



There are a few people on the forum who know much more than I do about this and can chime in if I have anything wrong.

Dan

[Geoff F]

There are both bees and wasps which are parasitic, at least in the larval stage. Some wasps actually attack spiders and drag them into burrows to feed their larvae.

Not sure about the identity of your bumble, Bill, but from that angle my guess would be for Bombus pascuorum (Common Carder Bee).

Identification can be difficult at this time of the year when there are also males and Cuckoo Bees, which lay eggs in the nests of other bumblebees or completely take over an existing nest. But one clue to identification is seeing a bundle of pollen, which doesn't occur with males or cuckoos.

[billtils]

Dan

Thanks for all this helpful information and images. What can be seen in the first (the "little native bee) is what I would have expected, not the sac structure which caught me out. Love the wasp image!

[billtils]

Thanks Geoff

[rudi]

Nice capture Bill with a nice OOF the background !!

[billtils]

Thanks Rudi

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image with lovely colors Bill

[billtils]

Thanks Binnur

[IzzieK]

I would think Dan is right about his ID, Bill. And what a wonderful collection he has!
I like #1, Dan..
Bill -- your shot here is excellent. The background matches your subject and the sharpness is excellent too, both in the flower and the bee itself.