Interesting bee.
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
On 8/2/2013 5:27 PM, Chris Trask wrote:
>> Right now every rain sage in the neighbourhood is in full bloom, as are
>> Mexican Bird of Paradise and Yellow Bells, and yet not a single solitary bee
>> is to be found. Last year you could hear them from a short distance, but
>> now it's dead quiet all day long.
>>
> This morning I was happy to find a total of five bees around the
> flowers on my Texas Sage hedge. One was a large Carpenter Bee, two others
> were generic Honey Bees, and then there were a couple of small white bees.
> Those last ones became a bit of a curiosity as I had never noticed any
> before, so I followed them around with the E-500 and Quantaray 24-40/3.5.
> That's not the best lens to use for stalking insects, but I needed to give it
> a try just to see how well it would work. Out of a dozen or so photos, a
> couple came out well, and I was able to make this enlargement from one:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/64004640@N03/9423150689/
>
> It really surprised me when I saw the first photo that the thorax and
> head were a metallic green. Luckily, the Audobon guide for insects had a
> photo of a Virescent Metallic Green Bee (Agapostemon virescens) that looked
> awfully close, and by way of the white bands on the abdomen this one is a
> female.
>
> The Quantaray 24-40/3.5 works well for landscape and flower closeups,
> but it's not a good choice for stalking insects as you have to get much too
> close. I'll stick with a long telephoto from now on.
>
>
> Chris
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