Author Gary Taylor ◦
I am so fickle… 😆 First day off work since I found my new favourite (unknown) bee, the big fluffy golden Stenotritidae, possibly a new species, so I went back out bush hoping for some clues as to what she’s feeding on and hopefully get some better pics… if I can get a look at the colour of the pollen on her legs (which I did 😃) I might be able to figure out what she’s feeding on… (which, despite hours of searching for, I didn’t 😅). But, knowing we might be in for a big day and see nothing, we stopped at our favourite bee spot for a quick look, quick half hour walk, that’s all… 😆 and then I spotted these gorgeous little cuties… 😃💕
My new new new favourite little bee… but talk about hard to get, they just wouldn’t bloody stop still, and when they did it was always head down, bum up and tucked deep down in the Hakea flowers… Took close on two hours and many dozens of “missed” pics (knee deep in a spiky Hakea, back screaming from bending over, righto this time… damn, ok next time for sure… 😆) for them to start to get used to me…😅 (…oh for a sleeping Thyreus or Amegilla… something easy… 🤣).
Anyway, don’t get me wrong, I’m still determined to discover more about Taylor’s Burrowing Bee 😄 Stenotritidae (Ctenocolletes) taylori… Hey, it’s ok to dream… 😅 (for the Latin minded I also considered another option, S. (C) “secundus”… in reference to another favourite bee Trichocolletes pulcherrimus… Pulcherrimus meaning ‘The most beautiful’, Secundus being second place 😄) And she’s still my favourite “Big” bee for the year but I truly love the little unsung heroes… The gorgeous little ones that no one ever sees or notices ‘cos they aren’t big and fluffy or have vaguely blueish bands…
Photographs Geraldton-ish, Midwest WA © Gary Taylor
Ken: Euhesma “taylori” – another newy … never seen one like it. Done it again Gary. Congratulations.
Gary: Wow, thanks Ken!
Euhesma “taylori” > Euhesma “taylori” – part 2
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