Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Shiny Green Bee

Cutting off spent blossoms in my garden, I noticed this pretty green bee having a wonderful frolic in the centre of this blossom. Notice how shiny its head and thorax are. Off to get my trusty camera!

Then I had to look her up to find out what kind of bee she/he is. LOL

And this is what I found out: Natives to North America, green metallic bees (Agapostemon splendens) are often seen visiting a wide variety of flowers, including coreopsis like this one. Although they are important pollinators for many plants they aren't domesticated.

Hmmm. Perhaps they remain wild because they're solitary bees that live in vertcal nests they burrow into sandy or clayey soil -- not in transpotable nests. What do you think?
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 23, 2008 at 7:07 AM

    Hard to imagine, I suppose, but I just took some macros of this same bee the other day and got it ready to post and something else came up. Your photo is really nice to see.

    Abraham Lincoln
    —Brookville Daily Photo

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  2. TomJuly 23, 2008 at 7:54 AM

    I've never heard of or seen these before. I think the marking are very nice and as bees go it's certainly different.

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  3. DarlaJuly 23, 2008 at 8:02 AM

    A green bee? What next? If I didn't know you better I'd think that was photo shopped, LOL!

    Darla

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  4. This Is My Blog - fishing guyJuly 23, 2008 at 8:13 AM

    EG: Very nice capture of the green bee. I've never seen one.

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  5. LouiseJuly 23, 2008 at 10:13 AM

    I've never seen a metallic green bee! Very nice picture. Thanks for sharing it!

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  6. MarcelJuly 23, 2008 at 10:22 AM

    A super and beautiful photo.

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  7. dotJuly 23, 2008 at 10:56 AM

    I wonder if this is the kind of strange bees my daughter encountered a couple years ago. It's a beautifu shot and the bee and the background match in colors!

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  8. CatherineJuly 23, 2008 at 2:01 PM

    Wow, great capture! I've never seen a shiny green bee before! :D
    He/She looks beautiful against the bright yellow flower! :)
    Hope you are having a great week!
    Cat

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  9. Digital Flower PicturesJuly 23, 2008 at 5:59 PM

    Nice capture. I like these bees as they don't interact with me :lol:

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  10. KimJuly 23, 2008 at 6:56 PM

    I have never seen one before, but it is definitely an intriguing creature. Looks like we both have similar themes today :)

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  11. me ann my cameraJuly 23, 2008 at 7:44 PM

    I think your photo is very fantastic! The flower is great but the bee makes it greater! Love it.
    ann

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  12. Small City ScenesJuly 23, 2008 at 8:59 PM

    Well I wrote you awondeful comment, saying all these great and magical things and the lovely blogger said I couldn't send it. Do you think I can remember word for word what I said--NO. So this will have to suffice and now I will see if it will clear blogger or Yahoo. MB

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  13. VPJuly 25, 2008 at 4:00 PM

    Great shot - and good on you for looking up the info to tell us all about it :)

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