eframgoldberg Loc: South Florida

After being inspired yesterday, I tried to get a honey bee in flight today, i got a good orchid bee and a so so honey bee, tomorrow Ill try again! Both taken with 100mm L macro, f5.6 1/1000, ISO 1000, Canon 5dmkii, manual focus betweeen 1:1 and 1:2

Orchid Bee


Honey Bee


Isolated Orchid bee from above

tinusbum Loc: east texas

nice shots,i got to give that a try.tom

eframgoldberg Loc: South Florida

I have a series of the orchid bees in flight already since they hover and are easy to shoot. The honey bees not so much, Ill try again.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Your Orchid bee in flight is magnificent!

What is the difference between Metallic Sweat bees http://www.greatsunflower.org/agapostemon and Orchid bees?

http://beefriendly.ca/index.php/native-bees/sweat-bees

eframgoldberg Loc: South Florida

the orchid bee, Euglossa viridissima was introduced to florida by mistake in the past 10 years or so and has introduced itself in several colonies throughout the state of Florida. They think Butterfly World in Coconut Creek released them by mistake. They are larger then the metallic sweat bees and thicker. The hind legs have enlarged "thighs" with a special organ the orchid bee uses to collect special fragrances and pollen. Orchid bees also have very long tongues, as long as their body. The face is also different with orchid bees having a white face that seems to be made up of plates. Agopestomon is also usually a lighter green and much smaller, augochlora bees are also smaller, and have thinner legs in comparison with the orchid bees as can be seen with the attached image of an augochlora or augochlorella bees. Orchid bees, especially males also have large tufts of feathery white hairs.

here you can see the large hind legs with the special organ, field stack of two images.


augochlora or augochlorella sp. taken at ~3x, you can see tiny mite parasites on the bee's back and out of focus on the wing

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Very nice.

napabob Loc: Napa CA

A real challenge for sure, I have very few in good focus and they were hovering shot from above, yours are harder

glojo Loc: South Devon, England

I am still in awe of the images that capture these things in flight. Rumour has it that we will be having some sunshine this month and I am determined to try harder and improve on what I can achieve.

LittleRedFish Loc: Naw'lens (New Orleans)

Clearly your getting up close and personal. :mrgreen: Which makes me very jealous. :-D