Sacred Pollinators. Lasius niger, Garden Ant, and Bombus lucorum, White-tailed Bumblebee, on Jerusalem Sage, Phlomis fruticosa, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Me, yes, I'm quite tiny and alone. They've sent me to scout out the surroundings. We're a new nest of Garden Ants, Lasius niger, you know. And I'm one of the survivors. Most of my friends died in our migratory deprivations. Now we've got to replenish, refurbish and especially renectar our Eusocial Colony so we can grow big again for the next cycle just before Winter if Her Highness thinks fit.
Maybe I'm on to something nutritious! No, it's not Pollen. Those big Bumblebees, though, are happy collectors and pollinators (see the stamens brushing her back in the main photo).
Yes, I've been watching here a bit. Most of those Sacred Bees - with a Latin name like Lasius, I know about 'lucus, lucorum' and sacred groves or woods - have been jostling back and forth on this very yellow Jerusalem Sage. This Phlomis has light-colored Pollen, as you can see in the inset photo with me in it as well. But then suddenly, in zoomed and bumbled another One from the Grove. She's come from afar - at least for me who would have to scuttle down to the ground, across the garden, and up another flower stalk. By that time my scented trail would have given out and I'd be really lost. You can tell she's visited other plants because of the color of the Pollen on her hind legs: red.
I've never really tried eating pollen though some of our kind have a taste for Pine Pollen. But I know that where there's pollen there's likely to be nectar, too! I'll just have a taste for quality and then report back to the Colony.'
Sacred Pollinators. Lasius niger, Garden Ant, and Bombus lucorum, White-tailed Bumblebee, on Jerusalem Sage, Phlomis fruticosa, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Me, yes, I'm quite tiny and alone. They've sent me to scout out the surroundings. We're a new nest of Garden Ants, Lasius niger, you know. And I'm one of the survivors. Most of my friends died in our migratory deprivations. Now we've got to replenish, refurbish and especially renectar our Eusocial Colony so we can grow big again for the next cycle just before Winter if Her Highness thinks fit.
Maybe I'm on to something nutritious! No, it's not Pollen. Those big Bumblebees, though, are happy collectors and pollinators (see the stamens brushing her back in the main photo).
Yes, I've been watching here a bit. Most of those Sacred Bees - with a Latin name like Lasius, I know about 'lucus, lucorum' and sacred groves or woods - have been jostling back and forth on this very yellow Jerusalem Sage. This Phlomis has light-colored Pollen, as you can see in the inset photo with me in it as well. But then suddenly, in zoomed and bumbled another One from the Grove. She's come from afar - at least for me who would have to scuttle down to the ground, across the garden, and up another flower stalk. By that time my scented trail would have given out and I'd be really lost. You can tell she's visited other plants because of the color of the Pollen on her hind legs: red.
I've never really tried eating pollen though some of our kind have a taste for Pine Pollen. But I know that where there's pollen there's likely to be nectar, too! I'll just have a taste for quality and then report back to the Colony.'