Bored in isolation? May I suggest these two options as demonstrated by a couple of native bees I came across yesterday: eat or do something that isn't eating and involves legs going everywhere 😉😂
I was minding my own business taking photos of a lovely Lipotriches Bee feeding on a daisy and she looked so damn cute as her legs and her sweet face were covered in a thick smattering of yellow pollen while she slowly fed on the flower, occasionally stopping and using her hind legs to wipe over her bee butt to remove the excess pollen and her front legs to gently wipe over her eyes and clean off her antenna. Totally adorbs!
And then all of a sudden something smacked hard against her and she fell right to the edge of the petals, clinging on with only a couple of legs. It took me a while to work out what was happening and it sure looked like it took her a while as well, as she struggled back onto the flower and continued to drag herself and her new passenger along the flower with her. Ah, young love! This happened several more times over several different daisies with the male flying in and grabbing at her, and even another male getting involved and trying to muscle in on his woman! Now I've never seen bee sex before and I'm fascinated in animal behaviour and look, I'm just here to help you all to see something you may not have seen before (that's my story and I'm sticking to it 😂🙌).
Anyway I got a blurry shot of the penis or beenis in one of the photos. I'm not going to tell you which photo so consider it the BZ version of an Easter egg hunt, minus the eggs. Enjoy!
Lipotriches Bees
Northern Illawarra
