Two species of male sunflower bees, Svastra obliqua and Melissodes agilis, spend the day on our Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) chasing the girls and protecting their turf.
Sometimes I wonder why they don't tire out sooner than they do. The Energizer Bunny could take lessons from them.
But a night, it's a different story.
While the female sunflower bees return to their underground nests at night, the males sleep in a tight cluster on the nearby lavender stems. These boys are s-o-o tired that they're often "in bed" by 5 or 6 p.m.
But their cousins, the honey bees, are still foraging, gathering pollen and nectar for their colony.
So what a surprise last weekend to see a worker bee doing what her name implies--working!--on a lavender blossom next to the sleeping boy bees, Melissodes agilis. "Excuse me, boys! There's nectar here! Do ya mind? Could you move over just a little bit?"
I aimed my little pocket camera, a Nikon P340, and caught the girl on the boys' night out.
She'll be back. So will the boys.
(Editor's Note: You can learn more about native bees in the Heyday book, California Bees and Blooms, a Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, written by UC-affiliated authors Gordon Frankie, Robbin Thorp, Rollin E. Coville, and Barbara Ertter.)
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