Morning Glory

Author Gary Taylor ◦

Ok, first up I apologize for the over abundance of bluey purple 😅 And for the keen eyed gardeners, yes, it’s the dreaded “Morning Glory” vine, 😄 terrible stuff, believe me it’ll cover your house in no time, keeping the sun off your walls and windows (and the heat, thus the bills, down dramatically) with it’s year ’round display of insect loving flowers attracting nature of all sorts… horrible 😃 soon you won’t be able to see the nearest streetlight at night through the window… 😢 (sarcastic emoji) 😆 all you see is the geckos come out to feed on the moths and bugs drawn by the lounge room light… it’s honestly better than TV… 😅 I watched one little gecko watching an incoming moth, it opened it’s mouth and the moth (bigger than it could swallow) literally flew straight down it’s throat and I swear the gecko looked around, big moth bum poking out of it’s mouth, to see if anybody else saw it too 😂 I did bud, your mates aren’t gonna believe it, but I saw it… 😆 And the added bonus… Did you ever have a “witches house” nearby when you were a kid?.. We did, an old overgrown little house out in the bush that seemed abandoned but at night a soft light glowed in the house, spooky, no one went near the witches house… Woohoo! That’s me! I live in the witches house… 😂

Anyway, the second thing I apologize for is the lame riddle… it’s what we witches do 😄 I’m not a Megachile, but I’m Megachilidae, nor am I Lithurgis or a Megachilinae, who am I? All together now, Austrathurgis of course!.. 😂 yep, I’m probably the only one who found that funny… 🤣 but I love these bees, they’re awesome to watch…

First and second pics are the male, this guy is so cool, he runs a regular patrol of “his” territory, bouncing from flower to flower to check to see who’s about, typical of a male looking for a female, you’d have probably seen it… that bee that just wont stop still for a moment, buzzing from one flower to the next, yeah that’s a male… but these guys will also choose a couple of “look-out” flowers (usually one each end of “his” patch) where he can pull up but still keep watch over his kingdom (2nd pic). And tho’ it’s believed by many that the majority of this is about looking for a female, I’ve watched them for years and I dispute that… 🙂 The way he shoots off to check out any “new” bee on his turf and the full on punch up that ensues if he finds another male… (again, awesome to watch) plus the way he already seems to know where the female is (I’ve seen it) but he still does this fast, almost angry check of the flowers until he gets close to her (about 30 cm) and suddenly he just cruises slowly past, actin’ cool, arm out the window, doin’ his best Joey Tribbiani, “Hey babe, how YOU doin’…” and as soon as he’s past it’s back to bouncing around making sure no one is cutting his grass 😆 I reckon nah, he’s mostly defending his territory… 😅

And his girl, 3rd, 4th, and 5th pics, she’s also a delight to watch… Some bees will hover over a flower checking it out before they either tuck in or move to another, (ok, so you know bee antennae are highly sensitive receptors and you may have heard they can detect temperature, humidity and even carbon dioxide levels on top of pheromones and even sound, yep all true, but they can also detect the sugar/energy content of the nectar in the flower just by hovering over it… So next time you see a high speed bee hover over a flower then move to another, it’s just pulled up at the wrong bowser, standard unleaded, she’s running on Bee P ultimate 28 octane… 😆), but this girl dives in at such a speed I can’t help but think it must just be fun 😅 She’s like a kid at a fun park diving into a pool of soft toys, or a dingo with the zoomies breaking the sound barrier through your house then suddenly launching onto your bed sliding on her side the whole way up and using the pillows to stop her going clean through the wall 😃. Then she wallows and swims about amongst the pollen laden anthers like a sea otter in a kelp forest… (it looks like great fun) packing the pollen on and stuffing her gob at the same time… I know she eats it too ‘cos she’ll often pause (4th pic) and have a good ol’ chew before flying off… 🙂