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| Great Black Digger Wasp |
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| On some Virginia Mountain Mint |
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| Bumble Bee drone, either a Black-and-gold or Golden Northern bumbler. More likely the former |
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| We have been seeing drones of the same species a lot recently, and they have a habit of perching on the same stalk or flower. Today was the first day we have seen multiple of them in one trip. The males of ants, termites, social bees, and social wasps are very rare, only produced once in a while. The entire purpose of the male is to mate with a virgin queen so she can start a new hive. Fun fact: bees evolved from non-social wasps, while ants evolved from social wasps. So wasps and bees evolved societies separately, but ants got their social lifestyle from wasps. Termites are all social, only the fertile insects are winged, have the largest insect colonies on earth, and have a fungus-farming lineage. This makes them much like ants, but they evolved from cockroaches! |
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| Bumblebee Drone on Prairie Blazing Star |
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| Bumbler drone on an unidentified Boneset |
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| Do you see the beetle photo bomber? |
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| Eastern Carpenter Bee on Rattlesnake Master |
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| Bicolored Striped Sweat Bee on a Pale Purple Coneflower. Bees can't see red like most humans do, but they do share our green and blue cones. They also have ultraviolet cones. This coneflower is seemingly completely relying on its brightly UV center to attract bees |
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| Do you see the very small bee? |
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| Ants harvesting honeydew (the nectar-like poo-poo of aphids) from Oleander Aphids |
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| Common Eastern Bumble Bee with quite the pollen basket (that orangey glob on the leg) |
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| Bzzzzzz |
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| Double bumblers! |
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| Common Eastern Bumbler |
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| Wheeee!!!! |
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| Sluuuuuurp |
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