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Not an overly common butterfly, the Regal Fritillary is easy to identify from other fritillaries by its dark colored hindwings. This butterfly has been seen a number of times this summer at the Cornell Waterfowl Production Area in North Dakota. In addition to having a large acreage of native prairie here, this site had a prescribed burn this spring. Lots of native wildflowers responded well to the burn, like the dotted blazing star that the Regal is feeding on.
Photo Credit: Krista Lundgren/USFWS
Honey bee and lady bug pollinating a sunflower in a cover crop mix trial at the Bridger Plant Materials Center. Bridger, MT. August 2017.
I had fun trying to capture some bees in flight. Considering that I used the kit lens, I am reasonably satisfied :)
Pollinators and spiders from the Penn State Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Landisville, PA
For more information on this and other resources, please visit extension.psu.edu/pesticide-education
Where trade names appear, no discrimination is intended, and no endorsement by
Penn State Cooperative Extension is implied.
Photos by Garo Goodrow, Multimedia Specialist
Penn State Pesticide Education Program
© The Pennsylvania State University 2014
The fascinating process of pollination takes place every Spring. These flowers will be leaves this Summer. Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm
I purchased my first, solitary, bee hotel in the spring of 2018. It was quickly discovered by Mason and Leafcutter bees and by the end of the first summer, I had almost "full occupancy." The bee hotel was placed on a shelf in the garage for the winter to protect the developing larvae from sub-zero temperatures. The following spring, it was placed back on the front porch in the same location near the garden where the bees forage. Unlike, honey bees, solitary bees only travel a few hundred feet from where they emerge. I added a second bee hotel during the early summer of 2019 and both hotels had nearly "full occupancy" by the end of the summer of 2019 and again in 2020. It has been amazing to observe the female bees go back and forth from the garden collecting pollen, cutting bits of plant material or gathering mud, then returning to the bee hotel to begin the egg laying process. Once they choose a “nesting tube” they crawl to the far end to begin. The female bee places her provisions, pollen with some sticky nectar that she rolls into a ball, then lays a single egg on the top. Next, she seals the egg into a “cell” with mud or leaf material (depending on which species she is) and repeats this process until the tube is filled the whole way to the front. One female solitary bee can lay about 5-15 eggs depending on the length of the tube. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the provisions, then form cocoons, and don’t emerge until the following spring. Each year, I would bring the bee hotels out from winter storage, but missed their emergence in 2019 and 2020. However, on March 31, 2021, our first really warm day, I happened to look out the kitchen window, which faces the porch and noticed a swarm of small bees flying around the bee hotels, the porch and even resting on the aluminum siding of the house. They were warming themselves in the sun! I was able to determine that these were all Mason Bees because the bees that were emerging were all breaking through the tubes that were sealed with mud. I observed the male Mason bees fly back to the nesting holes to check on whether the female bees were emerging. The males could apparently detect where the females were and would remain on the bee hotel, to attempt mating as soon as a female came out or would even enter the tube to mate before she emerged. At times, several male bees would pile onto the female, fighting to mate with her, often falling to the ground. As each new bee made its way to the opening of a tube, their tiny faces could be seen peering out from the tubes. Each emerging bee would cautiously come to the edge, clean their antennae with their feet, quiver for a moment, then take their first flight! Since the weather has turned cold again and there aren't many flowers yet, the bees are staying inside. On the intermittent warm days, they emerge to work on cleaning out the tubes, as evidenced by bits of dried mud all over the porch, just below the bee hotels!
As of the time of this posting, the Leafcutter Bees have not emerged, as the holes are still sealed with the plant materials used. This photo series was taken over two hours and is only a small portion of the total number taken of the amazing event.
onegreenworld.com/mason-bee-care/
ento.psu.edu/news/penn-state-pollinator-webinar-series-ma...
I am always quite happy when I come across bees with that little orange blob attached to their back legs. It's called the pollen basket and it's where bees store what they collect - this fellow's is nice and full of compacted pollen. Apparently, the basket can hold up to 1 000 000 000 grains of pollen!
Close-up of a bumble bee pollinating a blue flower. Pollination is defined as the process by which pollen is transferred in the reproduction of plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. (Wiki, 2013).
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In Britain, insect visitors to the Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) are uncommon and the flower is usually self pollinated. However, on the continental mainland of Europe, this and many other Ophrys species have specialist insect pollinators, which are attracted to them by pseudopheromones (false female scents).
The pseudopheromones persuade male insects to try to mate with the flower. Pollinia are much modified anthers, containing pollen. The pollinia become attached to the insect, which then flies to another flower and thus transfers the pollen.
In the image shown of the bee orchid in Britain, when the flower first opens (shown here), the pollinia are hidden in the ‘hood’ at the top of the flower. After a day or two, self pollination usually occurs. The pollinia fall down and are blown by wind into contact with the sticky stigma (shown in the next image).
Image by John Bebbington FRPS
In addition to helping stormwater runoff soak into the ground, many of the native plants at Edison High School also provide pollinator habitat.
When it comes to pollination in the middle of the Karoo (semi-desert), it is every bug for him/her self.
Martin
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Administrator of:
All things beautiful in Nature Group
#66 -- Pollination -- 115 Pictures in 2015
Also for Studio 26's assignment on small animal / Big Frame
% of frame taken up by animal -- 5 %
Design elements:
--Bright area, drawing eye to subject
--Selective focus
--Lines converging, leading eye to subject. Wasp's wing parallel & echoing effect
--Framing of subject
--Placement of subject -- low in the frame & heading downward, in direction of leading lines
--Visual weight -- despite the current benign activity, the nature of wasps is likely to draw the eye & attention