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This is the season for many cacti to flower. Each day I check in my greenhouse for new flowers opening. Today I made such a check and found a flower (Turbinocarpus alonsoi) which was open on previous days had a bee in it but no ordinary bee.
This was a Mason Bee, Osmia. I think it was O. leaiana, one I had not seen before, although it is quite a common species. The yellow facial hair makes it a female, the males having white hair. These bees are about 10mm long, a bit smaller than a honey bee.
The bee was resting and remained in place while I went indoors to fetch my camera and stayed there while I took photos. The only movement it made was the occasional repositioning of an antenna, something I had to watch out for with stereo pairs.
When I returned a few minutes after the session, it was flying around in the greenhouse. Expecting a difficult time trying to release it, I was surprised that it settled on my approaching hand and did not fly off until we were outside.
The stereos are crosseye and use the uncropped images. The single frames have been cropped.
Olympus EM-1, (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, 1/80 at 10 (first two) or 1/30 at f11, hand-held.
Harold
This was a Mason Bee, Osmia. I think it was O. leaiana, one I had not seen before, although it is quite a common species. The yellow facial hair makes it a female, the males having white hair. These bees are about 10mm long, a bit smaller than a honey bee.
The bee was resting and remained in place while I went indoors to fetch my camera and stayed there while I took photos. The only movement it made was the occasional repositioning of an antenna, something I had to watch out for with stereo pairs.
When I returned a few minutes after the session, it was flying around in the greenhouse. Expecting a difficult time trying to release it, I was surprised that it settled on my approaching hand and did not fly off until we were outside.
The stereos are crosseye and use the uncropped images. The single frames have been cropped.
Olympus EM-1, (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, 1/80 at 10 (first two) or 1/30 at f11, hand-held.
Harold
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