Over the Top
One precious frame cropped from my video clip
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Locust Borer Longhorn Beetle – 2020OCT02 – Charlotte, NC
I went to harvest goldenrod for goldenrod tea, finding in the bountiful blossoms a breathtaking bonus: a beauteous beetle!
Spectacular arrays of brilliant yellow flowers attract throngs of insects intent on collecting and consuming the nutritious large and rather sticky pollen from myriads of small flowers on each plant, a magnet for late summer and early autumn insects, this wasp-striped longhorn beetle among the most eye-catching, especially important to it as a mimic (Batesian mimicry, something harmless imitating something dangerous): looks like a bee or a wasp but cannot sting.
Many insects, like this locust borer, try very hard to imitate bees (called bee mimics) and wasps, and do a surprisingly good job of it!
Hope you enjoy this 25% of 213 captures I took here this day!
Over the Top
One precious frame cropped from my video clip
________________________________________________
Locust Borer Longhorn Beetle – 2020OCT02 – Charlotte, NC
I went to harvest goldenrod for goldenrod tea, finding in the bountiful blossoms a breathtaking bonus: a beauteous beetle!
Spectacular arrays of brilliant yellow flowers attract throngs of insects intent on collecting and consuming the nutritious large and rather sticky pollen from myriads of small flowers on each plant, a magnet for late summer and early autumn insects, this wasp-striped longhorn beetle among the most eye-catching, especially important to it as a mimic (Batesian mimicry, something harmless imitating something dangerous): looks like a bee or a wasp but cannot sting.
Many insects, like this locust borer, try very hard to imitate bees (called bee mimics) and wasps, and do a surprisingly good job of it!
Hope you enjoy this 25% of 213 captures I took here this day!