This male Xylocopa varipuncta a.k.a. Valley Carpenter Bee immediately caught my attention because of his large size, bright color, and zipping about behavior. He kept circling the Mexican Sage (for a long time!) without ever landing and without ever slowing down or hovering in place, which is apparently what the males of this species typically do (according to BugGuide). That flight pattern made him really hard to photograph. Eventually, I went with manual focus and just snapped away, hoping to get lucky. I have about 350 pictures that look like these,
but I'm pretty happy with a few shots. (The headache this critter unintentionally gave me, I'm not as happy about. I think my face is still partially paralyzed in squint position!)
These are some wonderful pictures of the Teddy Bear bee. I didn't know they existed until I came across your blog. Thank you for posting the photos for my wife and I to view.
ReplyDeleteBest Mike and Lucy