Author Gary Taylor ◦
“Try catching the bee and put it in the freezer for a bit” they say, “it slows down their metabolism and you can get some good close up pics and then set them free” they say… Well I say, don’t get side tracked and forget you’ve put them in… 😅 Crikey! Sorry little mate… 😆
Nah, only jokin’! 🙂 I didn’t freeze them, these are actually “Snow” bees, adapted to survive in the cold harsh environment of the Midwest WA alpine snow fields…😀 Ok, that’s also not true, but looking at the pics, if you didn’t have a clue what Midwest WA weather was like, either scenario might seem plausible 😂
But no, the truth is, these fluffy little snowballs known as “Smoke bush bees” (Leioproctus genus), are the epitome of the term “specialist feeders”. Righto, so backing up a bit, for those that don’t know the West Aussie Smoke bush (Conospermum), that’s it in the last pic. Those soft fluffy white bits are where the “flowers” are hidden (you can see the discreet entrance of one next to the bee in the 4th pic). Hardly the typical big colourful neon sign with ultraviolet arrows pointing to the bounty within, they don’t exactly draw a crowd like the honeybush or pea flowers do, so these little bees have cleverly cornered the market. And they not only feed solely on the Smoke bush, they spend so much of their lives on it they’ve evolved to blend in extremely well… Now you might be thinking camouflage against predators, but it’s a bit more sinister than that… due to the way the males wait in hiding on the fluffy white stems for an unsuspecting female to land, it’s believed to be used as camouflage to surprise the females in what is called “ambush mating”… 😕 Yeah, he’s not so cuddly now is he… 😅 But hey, they’ve been doing this a long time, and when you’ve only got 4 weeks to live why not spice it up, maybe the girls like a surprise and a bit of “cosplay” 😂 Who are we to judge”?.. 😆
But I can say that the camouflage, whom ever it’s for, works very bloody well… 😄 Combined with their erratic zig zag flight pattern, disappearing in amongst the tangle of fluffy white flower stems so wispy and wind catching they buckle if a fairy wren farts half a K away, I don’t reckon I’ve ever spent so many hours over so many days and so many K’s in the company of so many flies all wanting to drink, swim and bathe in my eyeballs over so many weeks, just to tick a new bee off the bucket list… 😂 So not the greatest pics, but the best I could do… Anyway, there’s only three species of “Smoke bush bees”, and I reckon this one is Leioproctus pappus, well the first 3 at least, maybe the 4th too, dunno, could also bee L. conospermi, that one’s not as fluffy, but I’m gonna need some more pics to be sure… 🙁😢😭 Noooooo…. 😂
Geraldton, Midwest WA © Gary Taylor
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