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Doin the Dirty
Jun 17, 2013 11:01:50 #
Went out this morning in the backyard to see what I could find. Right before going back inside, I spotted a tiny bee on a leaf of my Magnolia tree...Only took one shot as it looked like a subject I had multiple shots of. Well, got back inside only to find an even smaller male was copulating with the female. Went back out to get better images & ,of course, the male was gone, so I just took a few more of the female...Shot with the D7100 in 1.3x crop mode. Used my Lester Dine 105 @ 1:1 & a pretty severe crop as well...Didn't have my ring light on so I had to use the onboard flash for additional lighting...
Jun 17, 2013 12:42:30 #
Got a reply back from bugguide.net ...Seems I got really lucky here.Seems the male of the species only lives for a few hours, his sole purpose is to impregnate a mate... This is the comment form bugguide... "parasite, rather: a male strepsipteran...
...impregnating his grublike mate that sticks out of the host bee's abdomen.
what a lucky shot!
v belov, 17 June, 2013 - 11:16am "
...impregnating his grublike mate that sticks out of the host bee's abdomen.
what a lucky shot!
v belov, 17 June, 2013 - 11:16am "
Jun 17, 2013 13:16:13 #
Well, I just got a further update from another site...This is what they said "The male is not copulating with the bee. The male is copulating with a female strepsipteran embedded in the abdomen OF the bee. The bee is a Lasioglossum (Dialictus)."
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Jun 17, 2013 20:03:08 #
That's just crazy,banging a bug in bees butt,never heard anything like that before guess you are lucky,great shots.
Jun 17, 2013 21:45:00 #
Jun 18, 2013 00:33:19 #
Jun 18, 2013 01:49:04 #
thats strange,i have shot quite a few shots that were more than i saw when downloaded.good job!
Jun 18, 2013 19:48:32 #
Screamin Scott wrote:
Well, I just got a further update from another site...This is what they said "The male is not copulating with the bee. The male is copulating with a female strepsipteran embedded in the abdomen OF the bee. The bee is a Lasioglossum (Dialictus)."
TMI! <Bazinga>
Jun 19, 2013 21:45:04 #
Jun 20, 2013 09:58:36 #
Jun 20, 2013 16:30:56 #
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