Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Can You Identify This Bee?

I'm not sure what sort of bee this is...does anyone know? There were several, and they were bigger than honeybees and were enjoying the basil and mint blooms.

Here are some pics that are closer...







If you have any idea what kind these are, I'd love to know! :)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Robbyn: Thanks for your nice email re: my insect and bee photos.
I am not sure about the ID of your insect. I would suggest you post your close up image on www.bugguide.net. This is a wonderful insect ID website and I would bet that you get a response. Good luck and thanks for your interest!
Lew Scharpf

MommaofMany said...

I looked at my favorite bug identifying site www.whatsthatbug.com and I think it may be a Giant Resin Bee. Take a look on the Bees page and see what you think. You could submit your wonderful pictures and they will is it for you. They get many requests, though and don't answer all. Make your title a catchy one!

Carolyn said...

The Black Knight Bee......LOL

Wendy said...

Looks like a Carpenter Bee.

Phelan said...

it's a hornet. or at least that's what the swarms of them here are called.

Carla said...

Robbyn -
I think it looks a lot like Jeff Goldblum (hee-hee)
Carla in North Idaho

p..s okay, so I know he was "The Fly", not 'The Bee Movie', but I'm trying to make a bad joke here...

tina f. said...

I was going to say it looks like a type of carpenter bee also. We have them too but they don't bother us so we don't bother them.

Unknown said...

O mY... I have no idea....

Robbyn said...

lejun, many thanks for trying :)

Momma, that's one of my guesses, too :)

Caroly, lol!!

Wendy, yep, that's Jack's guess!

Phelan, could bee..oops, ha Jack's pretty sure it's not, though...the head doesnt have that waspish chew-a-plug-out-of-you biting face that he thinks hornets have. And it's not an aggressive little thing...

Carla, LOL the Jeff Goldblum!! oh, man, you and I just dated ourselves...how long ago did that movie come out?

Tina, that's our best guess...we read that there are over 500 types of carpenter bees and when some of the pics of carpenter bees didnt match up, I looked at other sorts of bees. But Jack found some that are pretty much a dead ringer for the ones we're seeing. They seem active in flight and curious that we're there, but they don't dive bomb us and pretty much leave us alone.

Christina, the vote weighs in to the carpenter bee side at this point :)

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Amazing photographs! What type of camera are you using?

Robbyn said...

Thanks, Twin! My camera is much smarter than I am. It was a gift from my husband last year, and I still have to learn how to utilize its amazing capabilities. It's a digital Canon S3 IS, 12X zoom, 6.0 megapixels. Most of the closeups I have are from standards pictures that I use an easy computer program
to crop, which focuses on just part of the picture. As I learn, hopefully I'll use it to its potential. Even not knowing much about it, I'm amazed at how you can see the pollen particles on the bee's fuzz :)

Anonymous said...

I hate to be the know-it-all here but you are all going in the wrong direction. Clearly this is a teenage Goth bee. Young honey bees are rebelling.

(Ouch, my tongue got caught in my cheek.)

Robbyn said...

Zhak, lol! They'll grow out of it??