Scrounging for Pollen. Heriades truncorum, Large-headed Resin Bee, on Beggarticks, Biden alba, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You may have seen Pollen-Brushers shiver their way across pollen laden flowers such as Beggarticks. That shivering 'tells' the stamens of the flowers to loosen up their pollen for collection. Honeybees, of course, have their corbiculae or pollen baskets attached to the tibia of their hind legs. Tiny Heriades, though, gathers pollen on the woolly (hence 'Heriades' from the Greekl) bottom of her abdomen (see photo).
Scrounging for Pollen. Heriades truncorum, Large-headed Resin Bee, on Beggarticks, Biden alba, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You may have seen Pollen-Brushers shiver their way across pollen laden flowers such as Beggarticks. That shivering 'tells' the stamens of the flowers to loosen up their pollen for collection. Honeybees, of course, have their corbiculae or pollen baskets attached to the tibia of their hind legs. Tiny Heriades, though, gathers pollen on the woolly (hence 'Heriades' from the Greekl) bottom of her abdomen (see photo).