Armed and Dangerous - _TNY_0633
They seldom sit still when not on a flower (and not very long even then), but here is a quick snapshot of a male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) with an impressive fur collar!
If you look at the back end of his absomen, you can see some of the five spikes which the males of this species have and use as weaponry when chasing away other males (and really any insect which isn't a female of his species) from "his" plant.
I saw one in this very spot (in my mother-in-law's garden) which pounced on a poor little mining bee and literally destroyed one of its wings so the other bee crawled away across the lawn afterwards - never to be able to fly again.
If you want to see more photos of this very interesting bee, I have an entire album with almost 70 (at the time of posting this) photos of just this species: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/
Armed and Dangerous - _TNY_0633
They seldom sit still when not on a flower (and not very long even then), but here is a quick snapshot of a male European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum) with an impressive fur collar!
If you look at the back end of his absomen, you can see some of the five spikes which the males of this species have and use as weaponry when chasing away other males (and really any insect which isn't a female of his species) from "his" plant.
I saw one in this very spot (in my mother-in-law's garden) which pounced on a poor little mining bee and literally destroyed one of its wings so the other bee crawled away across the lawn afterwards - never to be able to fly again.
If you want to see more photos of this very interesting bee, I have an entire album with almost 70 (at the time of posting this) photos of just this species: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157667862870066/