Sticky and sweet?

  

Nice lighting on these Sticky Sand-spurrey plants (Spergularia macrotheca) this afternoon...including the glandular hairs (hence the common name).

The sand-spurrey flowers were being visited by these wonderful bees.  I'm not sure which species of bee this is, but it was fun to watch them probing the nectaries near the bases of the filaments:

 

 

Bee careful

 

 

Well, this is a lesson in being careful and taking the time to look closely.  Recently I have been noticing these small bees zipping around visiting Seaside Daisies.  As you can see, they stand out because of the large loads of bright yellow pollen on their hind legs.  

Years ago I observed some bees with "pollen-covered chaps" (Melissodes pallidisignata, see the post from 31 July 2013) and I had been assuming the bees I've been seeing recently were that species.  However, when downloading my photos today I realized this looked like a different species.

Here's another view:

 

 

I'm not that experienced with identifying bees, but I'm wondering if this is Anthophora urbana?  If anyone out there can assist with the identification, I'd appreciate any help.

 

Interestingly, if it is Anthophora urbana, it is abundant on Bodega Head this year and I'm not sure if I've just missed it in the past (didn't look closely enough) or if it's more common this year than in years past?

In the strawberries

  

I was checking on some wild strawberry flowers in the dunes recently (28 February 2022) and noticed this little bee (Sphecodes sp.?) emerging from one of them.

From this view you can see the red-colored abdomen:

 

 

Spending the afternoon in strawberry flowers...not such a bad idea!

Ghost bees

  

Up in Mendocino County last week we noticed these small whitish bees flying very close to the ground.  They were very fast flyers, and didn't land very often, so it was easy to lose sight of them as they disappeared into the grassland or along the trail.  This is one of the only photos that came out well enough to share.  

My guess for this bee?  Perhaps a species called Melissodes pallidisignata, sometimes called a Pale-marked Long-horned Bee.  

I first wrote about this species back in 2012.  If you'd like to see a photo from Bodega Head, check out the post called "Mint green and fuzzy" from 25 July 2012.  And note that while the photo above is a male, the females look quite different!  See the post called "Pollen-covered chaps" from 31 July 2013.

Ring around the daisy

 

A small bee making its way around the ray flowers of a Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucus). 

Here's a close-up so you can enjoy the metallic green color of the bee,with white hairs on its abdomen, and pollen covering its legs and face.  Busy, busy!

 

Springtime

 

 

A springtime scene for you!  Blufftop Lupine (Lupinus variicolor) and Silver Bee (Habropoda miserabilis).

Nestled in the iris

About a week ago, I was walking in the coastal prairie during a chilly afternoon.  I noticed a bumblebee nestled in an iris flower, then another bumblebee in a different iris, then two bumblebees in a third iris, and there were quite a few others.  I'm not sure why so many bumblebees ended up in Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana) flowers, but it was a nice setting:

 

B & B

 

Whew, it's been a busy week, but here's a bee on a buckwheat for you!  Not sure which species of bee yet, but it's sipping nectar and acquiring pollen from Seaside Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum latifolium).  Photographed on Bodega Head on 11 July 2018.  [Click on the image for a larger version.]

The early bee...

...gets the willow!

 

Bodega Dunes, 8 March 2018

 

Activity at the coast

It's a longer story, but I'm going to have to get back to you about last night's mystery photo.  I promise to tell the full story, but it turns out that we need to do some additional research.

So tonight I'll share two of my favorite photos from a short walk at the coast today.  It was very hot in Bodega Bay again (over 80°F), which led to lots of insect activity.

 

Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) preparing to release eggs.  This is a tandem pair of dragonflies, with the male in front (left) and the female in back (right).  You can see a bright yellow cluster of eggs at the tip of her abdomen.  Soon they will fly down to the surface of the pond.  The male will release the female (briefly) and she'll tap her abdomen on the water to release the eggs.  Then they'll do it again (and again).

 

Can you believe how much pollen this bee is carrying?  I couldn't help but smile when I saw it.  The bee was loaded and covered with pollen, but all it seemed to want was more!

Foraging among the flowers

A few visitors to the Seaside Wild Buckwheat flowers (Eriogonum latifolium) in the Bodega Dunes on 26 August 2017:

 

Male Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon) from below

 

Female Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon) from above

 

A small wasp with big green eyes, possibly a bee hunter (Philanthus sp.)?

 

A beautiful iridescent blue wasp, possibly a spider wasp (Psorthaspsis sp.)?

If you can assist with the wasp identifications, let me know!

Happy Pollinator Week!

 

In honor of National Pollinator Week — a Yellow-faced Bumble Bee (Bombus vosnesenskii), photographed on Bodega Head, 17 June 2017

Busy

I went out this morning to try to photograph wasps, but I was having a hard time.  Then I noticed these wonderful bees:

 

The bees quickly entered burrows, so they were difficult to photograph.  Eventually I found one digging, and caught a glimpse of its beautiful green eyes:

 

And then I spotted a female outside of a burrow:

 

And a male perched on a flower stem (below).  Note his bright yellow face (it made the male easy to follow even when it was flying):

 

I'm pretty sure this is Anthophora californica.  It's the first time I've photographed this bee.  [You might remember that I showed a different species of Anthophora in 2013 — see the post called "Turrets and Tongues".]

Eventually, I also managed to photograph the wasp.  I need to ask for some help with the identification, but I think it might be a "cutworm wasp," perhaps Podalonia (argentifrons?)?  Impressively, the wasp was carrying a large caterpillar (perhaps a cutworm!):

 

And here's one more bonus picture.  I'm not sure about the identity of this pretty little bee, but I'm wondering if it's a species of Andrena?  This bee was so small and so fast, and the pollen on its legs was so dense and so bright, it looked as if a clump of pollen was flying among the vegetation!  UPDATE (30 May 2016): Robbin Thorp has confirmed this as Lasioglossum sp. 

 

So many choices

If you were a bee, which one would you choose?

 

Many coastal prairie wildflowers are having a great year.  On 16 April 2016, some native bees joined the "party":

 

Silver Bee (Habropodus miserabilis) landing on Cream Cups (Platystemon californicus)

 

Yellow-faced Bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii) visiting Sky Lupine (Lupinus nanus)

P.S.  Bee there, or be square!

Subsidy

About a week ago, while driving into work, I noticed a few Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) feeding in a grassland.  By itself that sighting wasn't unusual, but the exact location was a little odd — I hardly ever see vultures feeding there.  It was close to the road, so I decided to walk out to take a look at what they were feeding on.

 

I expected it to be some sort of mammal or bird...but my eyes opened wide to see this:

 

An Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)!  The vultures were eating this Ocean Sunfish in a grassland at least 120 feet from the bluff edge!

So one of the first questions is, how did the sunfish get there?  It's seems unlikely that a vulture could lift such a large prey item.  It's more likely that the sunfish washed up on the beach, and then a mammal (e.g., Coyote?) carried it into the grassland.

As I was photographing the sunfish, I noticed some movement along one edge.  Looking more closely, I realized an insect with strong black and yellow markings was landing on a torn area of the sunfish:

 

I don't have a lot of experience identifying insects in this group, but I think this might be a Western Yellowjacket (Vespula pensylvanica).  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The yellowjacket was actively carving out a piece of the sunfish!  Here's a sequence of images documenting the event, until just before the yellowjacket flew off with its prize:

 

 

 

This is a very nice example of a spatial subsidy — "movements of nutrients, detritus, prey, and consumers among habitats" — as defined by Gary Polis and colleagues in 1997. (See Polis, G.A., W.B. Anderson, and R.D. Holt.  1997.  Towards an integration of landscape and food web ecology: The dynamics of spatially subsidized food webs.  Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst.  28: 289-316.)

Inspired by the work of Gary Polis, ecologists have been increasingly interested in the movement of resources and energy between distinct ecosystems — such as from the sea to the land.  In this case, the Ocean Sunfish, normally found in the open ocean, was washed up onto a sandy beach, and then probably carried by a terrestrial mammal to a coastal grassland where it then served as food for land birds (vultures) and terrestrial insects (yellowjackets).  I couldn't help wonder — how often do yellowjackets eat Ocean Sunfish in grasslands?

As green as can be

On 25 August 2013, I encountered another fascinating native bee.  Below is the first one I saw emerging from a burrow in the ground:

 

There were several other bees nearby, hovering over the grassland vegetation and occasionally landing and disappearing underground.  I didn't have the best lens with me at the time, but I think these pictures still show off the brilliant colors of this species.

 

After a few minutes, I realized that a few bees were much faster than the others.  They were difficult to follow, zipped around very quickly in the vicinity of the other bees, and then disappeared.  

Eventually I managed a few pictures of these faster individuals.  They're blurry (these bees were in flight), but you can still make out the general color pattern:

 

 

After doing a little research, I'm pretty sure this is a type of Green Sweat Bee in the genus Agapostemon.  Two species in this genus have been recorded on Bodega Head (A. femoratus and A. texanus), so I'll have to inquire about how to tell them apart.  

The first individuals I photographed (all green) are the females, while the second type with the yellow-and-black striped abdomens are the males. 

It's going to take a while, but I'm slowly working my way through photographing all of the local bees.  Do you have a guess about how many species of bees have been recorded on Bodega Head?  (The answer is below the next picture.)

 

48 species of bees have been recorded on Bodega Head!  The list is available here.

Worth the wait

This is a follow-up to the Orobanche post on 16 August 2013.  I had wondered about the yellow linings on the lower flower petals and whether they might serve as a visual cue for pollinators. 

Well, the next day I happened to be walking by the Orobanche again.  Lewis had suggested that it would be fun to sit nearby and watch to see which pollinators visit these flowers.  I was on my way to a meeting, but I decided to give it 5 minutes.

I waited 4 minutes, and no insects had come to the flowers.  Why not?  They seemed so perfect — wide open and ready for visitors.  Should I leave?  It had been 4 minutes already without any signs of activity.  But I had told myself that I would watch for 5 minutes.  So I gave it another minute.

With about 30 seconds to go, a small bee flew in!  It dove into one flower very quickly, so I waited with camera poised until it appeared (see below).  You can see it emerging head-first, crawling along the yellow nectar guides.

 

It then flew to at least 3 more Orobanche flowers.  Because of its small size and unpredictable flight pattern the bee was difficult to photograph.  These are the best images I have for now.  I'll be sending the pictures out for help with an identification of the bee.

A view from above:

 

On the way to another flower (not such a bad place to bee!):

 

Emerging from the "tube":

 

Taking off:

 

Turrets and tongues

I can't help it — here's another local bee story.  I've actually been meaning to post about this one for a while now, but have been caught up with a variety of other things since Phil Van Soelen wrote to me about these bees in June.  

 

Colonies of Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana are observable from the outer parking lot on the southern end of Bodega Head.  What you might notice first are the fairly long "turrets" at the entrances to their burrows in the cliffs.

 

And then you'll see the bees approaching the burrows, or the faces of the bees peering out from the burrow entrances (below).

 

The turrets themselves are very intriguing.  At least three theories have been suggested for why the bees build them: deterring fly parasitism, protection from rain or debris, and serving as landmarks for orientation.

To build the turrets, the bees must find a water source, carry the water back to the cliff, and then mix the water with the sediment to create mud which they'll mold into a turret.

At one colony site, I found the bees at a very small pool of water on the upper portion of the beach.  Here they were busily sipping water:

 

When I looked closely at these pictures, I realized something about bees that I should have known a long time ago.  Bees have tongues!  In the next image, look for the bee's brownish tongue curling under to pick up water.  [Once you've seen it in the picture below, I think you'll be able to see at least two of the tongues in the photo above, too.]

 

There's so much to learn about the bees of Bodega Head!