Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy
Watching this Bumblebee search for nectar brought to mind that axiom... "Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy"
The Bumblebee:
Bumblebees are social insects that form colonies with a single queen. The colonies are smaller than those of honeybees, growing to as few as 50 individuals in a nest. Cuckoo bumblebees are brood parasitic and do not make nests or form colonies; their queens aggressively invade the nests of other bumblebee species, kill the resident queens and then lay their own eggs, which are cared for by the resident workers.
Bumblebees have round bodies covered in soft hair called 'pile', making them appear and feel fuzzy. They have warning coloration, often consisting of contrasting bands of color.
Like their relatives the honeybees, bumblebees feed on nectar, using their long hairy tongues to lap up the liquid; the proboscis is folded under the head during flight. Bumblebees gather nectar to add to the stores in the nest, and pollen to feed their young.
They forage using color and spatial relationships to identify flowers to feed from. Some bumblebees steal nectar, making a hole near the base of a flower to access the nectar while avoiding pollen transfer. Bumblebees are important agricultural pollinators, so their decline in Europe, North America, and Asia is a cause for concern. The decline has been caused by habitat loss, the mechanization of agriculture, and pesticides.
(200-600 @ 600 mm, 1/2000 @ f/8.0, ISO 800, edited to taste)
Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy
Watching this Bumblebee search for nectar brought to mind that axiom... "Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy"
The Bumblebee:
Bumblebees are social insects that form colonies with a single queen. The colonies are smaller than those of honeybees, growing to as few as 50 individuals in a nest. Cuckoo bumblebees are brood parasitic and do not make nests or form colonies; their queens aggressively invade the nests of other bumblebee species, kill the resident queens and then lay their own eggs, which are cared for by the resident workers.
Bumblebees have round bodies covered in soft hair called 'pile', making them appear and feel fuzzy. They have warning coloration, often consisting of contrasting bands of color.
Like their relatives the honeybees, bumblebees feed on nectar, using their long hairy tongues to lap up the liquid; the proboscis is folded under the head during flight. Bumblebees gather nectar to add to the stores in the nest, and pollen to feed their young.
They forage using color and spatial relationships to identify flowers to feed from. Some bumblebees steal nectar, making a hole near the base of a flower to access the nectar while avoiding pollen transfer. Bumblebees are important agricultural pollinators, so their decline in Europe, North America, and Asia is a cause for concern. The decline has been caused by habitat loss, the mechanization of agriculture, and pesticides.
(200-600 @ 600 mm, 1/2000 @ f/8.0, ISO 800, edited to taste)