The Daily Bucket is a place where we post and exchange our observations about what is happening in the natural world in our neighborhood. Bugs, buds, birds - each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
March 17, 2012.
My yard always has something blooming and there always seem to be bumblebees around. Here on the east end of the North Florida Panhandle, bumblebees even buzz by on warm winter days. So why not a diary on these furry bugs; that shouldn't take long? WRONG! I'll just run out into the yard and grab some pics off the ornamental azalea, now at peak bloom, and there ya go. WRONG!
As I am learning here at The Daily Bucket, seeing something, taking some photos, and then researching and telling the something I think I saw is not easy. It takes a lot of looks, a lot of research and thought. And often wild-assed guesses with the hope that a few generous Bucketeers can help the process and add the pieces I didn't quite see.
So here's the blooming target - my yard - well the non-native flowering part of the yard. Closeups and more start below.
First thing I learned - this is not a bumblebee. It's a carpenter bee - Xylocopa virginica
and more at Univ of Florida Featured Creatures site.
Best way to differentiate from a bumlebee is the lack of fuzzy hairs on the abdomen. See that shiny spot? Another way is that the males will buzz you as they seek to defend their territory - outside my door, the porch, the deck, the shed... They do not sting tho. This one was rather stunned from smashing into another bee or the wall. No one ever said these guys were smart. By the way, that is not flower pollen on this one; probably dust or pine pollen from the deck.
This is a bumblebee. I'm going to guess that is our common bumblebee - Bombus impatiens.
Note the rows of hairs on abdomen, the top row being yellow.
Here's a handy guide to the color variations.
Love how this one is threading the stamen on the way to the nectar way down inside.
Bumblebee entering a flower; note the pollen on its back. The pollen eventually gets scraped off into pollen sacs on hind legs.
This looks more like a carpenter bee. It's hard to tell sometimes but they were smaller than the other bees. Bonus bug to left of bee -- a tree cricket?
I wonder what they see as they fight their way in - the bright light, the overwhelming color.
Lined up to get in - a bit out of focus but a lucky shot worth posting.
Even as the flowers fade and droop, they still get worked over.
Here's a sequence - going in and coming out. Notice how the legs are propped against petals to drive in deeper.
Success! On to the next....
Then we have the "nectar robbers". That is where the bee robs the nectar from outside and avoids entering the flower and pollinating. (Pollination is not an issue with these azaleas tho.) This individual bee repeated this consistently; never saw it attempt to enter a flower thru the petals.
A brief discussion from Wiki
and more about this behavior at Bumblebee.org
Well that's it for me on this lovely St Patrick's Day in Tallahassee, sister city to Sligo, Ireland where my grandmother was born over a century ago. The woods have the bright green glow of newly emerged leaves, sunny as could be, and temps at or over 80 expected again. Soon the azalea blooms will all be gone, more bugs will be out to eat those bright green leaves, and the natural cycle continues. So what's going on in your neck of the woods? Anything interesting?