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Xylocopa Busted!
I've blogged on these wonderful carpenter bees (Xylopcopa virginica) before, but I never tire of taking shots of them. The other day I caught some in the act! Stealing nectar that is.
If you look closely at the head of the bee, you can see it is biting the flower near the tubular base, the calyx. They do this to get the nectar that's in the base.
Here is another shot of a carpenter bee doing a bit of stealing:
So people often have this notion of bees and flowers being in one happy little mutualistic relationship. The reality is much more complex! In fact, perhaps that leads to a good rule of thumb for living. How's this?
Truth is more complex than what we believe.
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30 August 2008
at 9:45 a.m.
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femail (Linda Hanney) says…
Paul—these shots are wonderful! Doesn't surprise me that it is stealing. I never thought I would say anything positive about a carpenter bee.
30 August 2008
at 10:06 a.m.
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tangential_reasoners_anonymous (Anonymous) says…
“Truth is more complex than what we believe.”
tangedit: “Truth is ( likely ) more complex than what we can imagine.”
30 August 2008
at 11:51 a.m.
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justbegintowrite (Ronda Miller) says…
Lovely shots - they can come into my yard to steal anytime they desire!!!
atrandomdit: “Absolute truth does not exist in this world nor any other”
30 August 2008
at 1:24 p.m.
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pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…
Ronda,
But they will bore into your deck if it's unpainted. I had one do that this Spring on the underside of the deck. But aside from that they are wonderful bees. Here is a great link for carpenter bee pictures. I wish I took them but I didn't. Here we just have one species of Xylocopa but in California there are a number of really cool Xylocopa.
http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hymenopt…
30 August 2008
at 1:25 p.m.
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pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…
Tangent I like your version as well.
Cheers,
Paul
30 August 2008
at 2:27 p.m.
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justbegintowrite (Ronda Miller) says…
Thanks for the additional link, Paul. Quite nice, interesting little busy bees. My deck is painted, well kinda in need of some more paint, but I will be on the lookout for the bees. Something hit me fast and furious last year around this time as I was turning water on from the faucet beside my deck. One got me in the ass, one on my left ear, and one on my right thumb. I was quite crippled and thought I was dying for a time there. My buttock took forever to heal - the bite swelled up the size of a dinnerplate and turned a very dark red. I have to admit that I usually don't kill things, but in this instance I ran into my home and grabbed a can of repellent and it was an all out war. I sprayed them in mid air; they didn't stand a chance, and then I destroyed the home I found next to the faucet. Yes, alas they were simply trying to defend their honor and their country. :(
30 August 2008
at 2:49 p.m.
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femail (Linda Hanney) says…
Ronda—sounds like the hornets that were “housed” in the ends of my clothesline poles.
30 August 2008
at 3:58 p.m.
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pdecell (Paul Decelles) says…
Ronda,
Sounds more like hornets to me. Carpenter bees do not sting usually but they re great bluffers.
4 September 2008
at 12:36 p.m.
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gr (Anonymous) says…
“Carpenter bees do not sting usually”
Do they ever? Or do they have weak stingers that don't penetrate fingers? I haven't been stung by them after handling several, but then I got a little nervous after reading that females can sting.