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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees » Sweat, Furrow, Nomiine, and Short-faced Bees (Halictidae) » Sweat and Furrow Bees (Halictinae) » Halictini » Striped Sweat Bees (Agapostemon) » Subgenus Agapostemon (Agapostemon Subgenus Agapostemon) » Bicolored Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon virescens)
Photo#125162
Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - female
Copyright © 2007 Anne Burton

Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - Female
Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, USA
June 27, 2007
Image 3 of 5. It's hard to tell if bee 2 is actually biting bee 1's wings, or if it just looks like that.

Images of this individual: tag all
Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - female Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - female Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - female Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - female Agapostemon virescens - aggression (?) leaving the nest - a series - Agapostemon virescens - female
Contributed by Anne Burton on 7 July, 2007 - 6:27pm
Last updated 30 December, 2008 - 7:19am

Bees.
The second bee is the "guard," and is apparently letting the other bee out of the burrow. I think the wings of the first bee are simply brushing under the "chin" of the guard bee.
… Eric R. Eaton, 10 July, 2007 - 5:26pm

 
Thanks!
I've watched the bees coming and going quite a bit. Often, a bee who is behind, in the entrance passage, will appear to walk over the bee in front...Interesting behaviors. When they return with pollen, they quite often go down one entrance and several seconds later, come up again and go down the next entrance - as if they don't know quite where their cell is located.
… Anne Burton, 10 July, 2007 - 9:40pm

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