Author Gary Taylor ◦
As the platypus season comes to an end, I’m still putting matching socks together… metaphorically of course (and coming up with sentences no one in the world has ever spoken before… 😆).
So first pic is from a week or so back, suspected male Megachile (Eutricharaea) macularis…
Stab in the dark, I’d reckon the next three pics are his matching sock. But notice how she doesn’t alight on the flower with wings splayed, a typical indicator of the sub genus Eutricharaea… Yet, in my previous post, Megachile semiluctuosa (thanks Ken)1, a resin bee, does… Just sayin’ guide rules are guide rules and not real rules, like i before e, unless you’re my neighbour pointing out the weight I’ve put, in which case you can either shut up or go home… 😄
Seriously tho’, looking at her immaculate scopae (4th pic) and her general all ’round “new” look, I’d say she’s fairly fresh out of the nest (hasn’t had a feed since she was a larva, 9 months ago… see footnote), only thing on her mind for now is stuffing her guts with as much energy as she can suck up… No point waving at the guys when you haven’t even got an apartment yet… Nah, you can’t go back to his place, when he say’s he “lives out in the sticks” he means it literally… 😅 It’s all up to you, so head down, keep visually quiet and tuck in girl ‘cos you’ve got busy few weeks comin’ up… 🙂
Footnote:
“9 months” is just a guess at the average time between the start of pupation to emerging as an adult but it’s an average taken from about a dozen or so different Megachile nesting in my BeeTown over 7 years… The quickest I’ve seen from capped nest to young emerging (the proper word is “eclosing” but nyeh, I just don’t like it…) is two months on the dot. The longest closer to 15 months and I still have sealed nests that may go even longer… but nah, they’re probably dead by now… 😆
Anyway, in case you’re wondering, and you probably weren’t, neighbour now thinks I’m a nutter ‘cos he saw me putting out my washing the other day… I found a matching pair of socks and let out a “Wooohoo!…” as I held them up… “A breeding pair!…” 😂
Photographs, Midwest WA © Gary Taylor
Blogs | The Coastal Moort | Everyone loves a platypus… | In the folds of the Platypus buds | As the platypus season comes to an end…
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