When its warm enough they fly out to go to the bathroom and scout for spring signs! the pollen will be excellent baby food
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Well, it LOOKS like a honeybeeâŚbut Iâm not certainâŚthe eyes look big, and the wings a little wide. (And it is getting nectar rather than pollenâŚ). (So, I think itâs a fly.)
I saw hundreds of honeybees on crocus both the Mondayâs in February when it actually was above 60 and NOT RAINING! (Just two days met that criteriaâŚand if itâs not Sunday this week, then those 2 days are it for February).
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Honeybee on CrocusâŚwith pollen. (I âborrowedâ the photo from the web.)
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I found it in another photo. Big eyes and skinny legs. Abdomen is a bit flat too. I donât know if that is normal for a honey bee in February. Maybe it hasnât had time to bulk up.
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A possibility?
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Yeah im most likely wrong by looking at the eyes also, the first one you cannot really tell but they definitely have hairless eyes like the link says and a flatter body which i have never seen winter or spring bees really be flatter. Thats super interesting that these could be just a spring lifecycle bee
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That photo is like 20 feet from my neighborâs large daisy patch, and my friend warned me about âyellow jacketsâ that nest in the ground by our fence line. Never found a yellow jacket nest. The pieces seem to fit.
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Yes, definitely a possibility.
(I donât know much about this rare bee NCSU speaks of, though.)
*But, Iâve had thousands of honeybees in my bare hands, so I question the hairless bug eyed original posted insect on the crocus being a honeybee.
*Have even caught queen bees and applied a painted dot to their thorax, and put them back in the beehive.
Iâm wandering off topic, but people would ask âdo you ever get stungâ? Duh, of course!
(But, not as often as most people would think considering the exposure ⌠I seldom wore gloves, and sometimes no veil over my face, and have walked into a swarm of 20,000 and more with no protection, having them light on me even.) Miss the beesâŚneed to get a few again.
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I think it might be Andrena salicifloris, or a colletid bee.
Looks like Colletes nigrifrons male.
https://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Colletes+nigrifrons
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Looks like a hover fly to meâŚsorry dont know how to kink on phoneâŚgoogle it some look just like your pictureâŚthey fly differently than bees so of you get close its easy to tell
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Carlin, my thought also it a fly.
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So, i am really conflicted about these âprizesâ my dog brought me tonight. Yes, i am proud of him for sniffing out almost oderless baby rabbits and therefore helping keep the population down in my orchard.
But the animal lover part of me is upset about the death of these cute little bunnies!!!
I must admit iâm leaning more toward being proud of my dog, because i had quite a bit of rabbit damage this winter to some small fruit trees. STILL, given the choice i wish they just would live and nest a few miles away so patches my dog wouldnt have to kill the cute little guys.
BtwâŚim surprised we already have rabbits this big here in TN in early msrch. These are at least 4 weeks old (eyes open, full hair) which means they were born in late Jan or early feb. This crazy warm weather must affect both trees and animals!
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Glad you are okay!
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He made a recent appearance. He is catching some sun.
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Very good picture.
Iâm still inclined to say âflyâ even though I could be mistaken. Nice color to the euonymus leaves!
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It moves and behaves like a bee. It is early enough for bees, but I donât think many flies are out yet. I have seen a few bumbles, and something that looked like a dark sweat bee, but no other flying insects.
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This is a great picture and certainly looks more like a bee mimic (fly) but your other option of colletid bee works good too. You definitely see more bee insects rather than flys earlier in the year but its hard to say what wakes up when in your location. Can you follow it home?