Monday, September 10, 2007

Green Eyed Bee

The Sedum blossoms were wide open at Michele and John's place last week. The plants were loaded with bees and butterflies! Seeing several bee species side by side made it much easier for an insect newbie like me to pick out differences. This guy was on the big side and the green eyes with the distinctive dot pattern really made it stand out from the others. I didn't have bright sun that day, but I thought this image still turned out OK. See other photos of this bee in the garden photoset on Flickr. I also added some images of a clematis.

Update on 9/11: after a bit of looking on the web, I think this is a carpenter bee. Can anyone confirm that? This view showing the shiny black abdomen is one clue and I did see some other images on the web showing this type of eye -- but others not. Maybe a species difference? Still not sure why the compound eye exhibits this dot pattern. Is it the angle the light is entering/reflecting off the various cones?

Green Eyes

5 comments:

Dianne said...

Cool photo... weird bee. It's like the Leonardo Dicaprio of the insect world!

~Carla~ said...

Are you trying to cause more bee phobias than I already have (b/c i'm deathly allergic for those reading)!!!! First the one in your cube, and now one HERE!!! my skin is crawling... ok.. and I agree with Dianne....... sheesh - go to another insect already! :)

Anonymous said...

That's wild. I've never seen a bee with green eyes.

Erika Jean said...

coolness

jack/andrews said...

Very nice shot of the green-eyed bee. If it is a carpenter bee, I wonder where it's living? Not boring into my house I hope. They sometimes take up residence in the blue wooden rocker on the front porch. Check the back and see what a perfectly round hole they drill.