I am so excited to have met up with (on Saturday) my favourite little bees, Coelioxys! Something about these streamlined little wonders is just so appealing to me. Of course, they were sleeping in their usual manner on the rainy morning, so I had good opportunities to play with the lighting.
Here is what a cluster of Coelioxys looks like, on a dead flower stalk.
Because of the rain, this one had quite a bit of water accumulated.
Like with the Ammophila yesterday, the water adds something to the already pretty texture.
For this shot and the one at the top, I used some hard light from the rear and to the right to make these droplets shine. The green streak is a plant stem in the background.
This bee is starting to wake, and grooming begins even before detaching her mandibles.
In the midst of waking up…
Now the bee is detached, and looking for a place to groom all this water off.
After a couple swipes with the feet, the thorax is drier.
This pretty little bee had a bit of a drier perch for the night.
Saw your Flickr album for these…beautiful shots!
Thanks! I strongly advocate sleeping bees for shooting pleasure!
They seem to have an interesting relationship to that plant. I love the grouping of the three–I’m trying to figure out which plant it is.
These are dead stems of tansy. In general, these sleeping hymenoptera prefer stiff dead branches of small diameter to grip on.