What’s on the Day’s Agenda for This Longhorned Bee? – Bug Squad

Hey, the solar’s up! It is time to rise and shine! Perhaps I am going to shine earlier than I rise…or possibly I am going to…

Anyway, I simply wakened, and I am beginning to stir. I am prepared to overcome the day. I shall

1. Sip nectar
2. Search girlfriend
3. Guard the flower patch by dive-bombing and chasing off all critters.
4. Repeat. 

The situation: a male longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis, has simply spent the night time sleeping–and fairly cozily at that–on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. 

He’s Boy Bee With the Inexperienced Mesmerizing Eyes.

Boy Bee With the Inexperienced Mesmerizing Eyes doesn’t know–nor would he care if he could–that at the moment is the start of Nationwide Pollinator Week, a global annual occasion celebrating pollinator well being.

In response to the Pollinator Partnership, “pollination is an important stage within the life cycle of all flowering vegetation. When pollen is moved inside a flower or carried from one flower to a different of the identical species it results in fertilization. This switch of pollen is important for wholesome and productive native and agricultural ecosystems.” It is essential to our ecosystem.

Because the Pollinator Partnership says on its web site:

• “About 75 % of all flowering plant species want the assistance of animals to maneuver their heavy pollen grains from plant to plant for fertilization.”
• “About 1,000 of all pollinators are vertebrates similar to birds, bats, and small mammals.”
• “Most pollinators (about 200,000 species) are helpful bugs similar to flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and bees.”

However again to Boy Bee With the Mesmerizing Inexperienced Eyes. 

Famous bee professional, the late Robbin Thorp, a UC Davis distinguished emeritus professor of entomology and co-author of California Bees and Blooms: A Information for Gardeners and Naturalists (Heyday), used to speak about these little guys bullying all of the floral tenants–from honey bees to syrphid flies to butterflies to woman beetles–and extra. 

Boy, do they transfer quick. An excellent time to {photograph} them is after they’re sleeping or simply waking up. In any other case, attempt to seize photographs of them at a shutter velocity of about 1/5000 of a second. 

Completely satisfied Starting of Nationwide Pollinator Week!