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Photo#515947
 Unknown Bee in Mentzelia involucrata (part II) - Hesperapis - female

Unknown Bee in Mentzelia involucrata (part II) - Hesperapis - Female
Upper Box Canyon, northeast of Mecca, Riverside County, California, USA
April 30, 2011
This photo was taken at 11:03AM...a little under two minutes after the last image in this preceding series. I think it may be the same species---even the same individual---as in that series. My recollection is hazy, but I seem to recall the bee in the preceding series "disappearing" into the morass of pollen and filaments at the base of the Mentzelia involucrata flower here, and me taking the opportunity to adjust something on my camera while keeping one eye on the flower to make sure the bee hadn't flown off. When I finished, I cautiously tried to approach even closer. When this bee finally emerged from the morass of filaments, I think it saw how close I was and got spooked...I was barely able to snap the blurry image above as it warily zoomed out of the corolla.

I took the next shot in this series when it promptly returned.

In spite of the blurriness, I wanted to post this image because it gives some idea of the face (and mouthparts), which I thought may help in making an identification. Note the crusty glob of pasty-syrupy pollen gunk on the hind leg here. That wasn't visible on the bee in the previous series. But like I said, this bee may have been the same bee...seen here after furtively flopping around in the bountiful bottom of that flower during the two minutes between these shots and the previous ones. So it may have picked up all that gunk in the interim. (Or maybe it's a second bee that flew in with a heavy load already amassed. I'm not sure, that's why I'm posting the images as separate series.)

Images of this individual: tag all
 Unknown Bee in Mentzelia involucrata (part II) - Hesperapis - female Unknown Bee in Mentzelia involucrata (part II) - Hesperapis - female

Moved

Hesperapis (Xeralictoides)
female

 
Thanks John
I guess they were different bees after all!!

It's fun to watch bees dive deep into the dense mass of stamens of Mentzelia involucrata and disappear for many seconds before reappearing to exit. Often more than one bee at the same time.

Interesting the Hesperapis here is in the subgenus Xeralictoides, while the halictid in the accompanying series is in the genus Xeralictus. I guess I wasn't the only one who found them similar looking :-)

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