You should totally go visit Garden Walk, Garden Talk today! The amazingly keen author of that blog has posted a story about an encounter between two bees and it is funny and entertaining (and full of beautiful photos, as always).
The two bees she observes interacting are the introduced European Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum), which is so named because it collects fuzz from plants to weave a wool-like cocoon for its offspring. It was accidentally introduced to the US…found in New York in 1963, by 2007 it had already reached California:
This guy
And the humble Carpenter bee (Xylcopa virginica):
This guy
I have been watching the Wool Carder bees dive bomb other bees (and actually knock them out of the air) all summer, so I am super delighted that Donna caught the whole adventure on film. I highly recommend that you go visit her blog to read the story (and maybe poke around in the archives as well!).
Donna here from GWGT. Thank you so much for noting my post on the Wool Carder Bee. I was so hoping you would write about it more and here you did just that. I never saw one that I noticed before, and the only reason to notice it was all the battling it was involved in. She even head butt me as I was photographing and I backed off. I still think they look mean, but people seem to think they are cute. Your photo above has the bee looking aggressive even though stationary. Now to find the cocoons. Thanks again for all your help. You are the ‘man’!
Cool, you have two blogs?
Green Apples is a like the step child blog. I am not real a good ‘parent’. Mostly it is a photo blog with photoshop tutorials. Occasionally, I visit it and, while there, comment from it. Also, it serves as an overflow when there is to much to ‘report’ on GWGT, like now after garden walk season. I like its gravatar too!
Mmm…I’m an apple-holic
fascinating!