In the crack of a wall in the Pantanal, a tiny universe hums: the nest of the narrow stingless bee or Little Angel bee (Tetragonisca angustula). Golden workers bustle along delicate wax tubes, dwarfed by a bird feather and a small stone beside them. Indigenous peoples have long harvested honey and wax from these colonies for food and medicine, which can live for decades, far outlasting European honey bees. far outlasting European honey bees. Small in size, these master architects are giants in impact, a shimmering constellation of life tucked into the world’s largest tropical wetland. Location: Pousada Aguapé, Pantanal, Brazil. #macro #macrophotography #bee #beesofinstagram #abeja #abejasnativas #brazil #insect #closeup #insect #insectsofinstagram #naturephotography #macroinsect #smallworld #southamerica #pollinator #beesoftheworld
Earlier than usual or otherwise, spring has arrived in Southwestern Montana and the early season solitary mining bees will soon be out. I don't know about you, but seeing the first insects appear, while the songbirds sing their spring songs is so invigorating to me.
What are some spring moments that get you going each season?
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#macro #macrophotography #insect #insectsofinstagram #bug #bugsofinstagram #bee #nativebees #closeup #insectphotography #bee #savebees #savethebees #pollinator #spring #pollinator #welcomespring #montana #springwatch
Right bee. Right flower. Wrong place.
In a scene that could have been photographed in the European countryside, a buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) nectar robs a European columbine flower (Aquilegia vulgaris) (see slide two). Unfortunately, I didn't photograph this scene in the Italian countryside, but instead in the southern Andes, in the Argentinian Patagonian region.
Bombus terrestris, which was introduced to Chile in the late 1990s for commercial crop pollination, quickly escaped captivity once it was approved for open-air use and established thriving feral populations continually reinforced by ongoing commercial imports. By 2006, despite Argentina’s ban on the importation of non-native bumblebees, the species crossed the Andes through low-altitude passes and advanced across southern South America at an extraordinary pace—about 200 kilometers per year—reaching Argentina’s Atlantic coast by 2011. Its spread has had devastating consequences for the native Patagonian bumblebee, Bombus dahlbomii: wherever B. terrestris arrives, the once-abundant native species declines sharply or vanishes entirely. This collapse is thought to be driven by pathogen spillover from the invasive bees, intense competition for food and nesting sites, and the ecological dominance of B. terrestris as a highly adaptable “super-generalist,” ultimately leading to B. dahlbomii being listed as endangered.
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#bumblebee #bee #savebees #beesofinstagram🐝 #bumblebees #abejorro #nativebees #closeupshot #closeupphotography #macrophotography #macrophotography #macro #naturephotography #insect #insectsofinstagram #insects #bug #bugsofinstagram #conservationphotography #colombia #video #bombus #argentina #patagonia @viunabejorro
Trypophobes, beware! For phoretic mites, bumble bees are like taxis, shuttling them from flower to nest. These mostly beneficial, or at the very least benign mites feed on nest detritus, keeping things tidy in a bumble bee's nest. They don't feed on the bee itself, but admittedly, I don't envy this Bombus mixtus, which has found itself with quite a collection of passengers.
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Over millions of years, the ancestors of Bombus dahlbomii—Mangangá, Moscardón, or as it is commonly known in English, the Giant Patagonian bumblebee—are thought to have made their way down the Andes into Patagonia, further south than any other species of bumble bee was able to naturally inhabit. Today, this giant of a bee, which is the largest of its kind in the Americas, is being pushed to extinction by the continued release and spread of the European species, Bombus terrestris throughout its habitat. Although banned for introduction into Argentina, it eventually made its way across low-points in the Andes and now outnumbers dahlbomii by incalculable numbers. For the last several days, I had the pleasure of searching for this bee with biologists Carolina Morales and Marina Arbetman in the Patagonia region of Argentina whose research and work with the social campaign @viunabejorro has done much to bring attention to this species. But so much remains to be done.
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I arrived today in Puerto Blest, Lake Nahuel Huapi, in Río Negro Province in Argentina's Pagtagonia region. It was raining today, but tomorrow, alongside biologists Marina Abertman and Carolina Morales, I'll begin my search for Bombus dahlbomii, the largest bumble bee in the Americas and a species that at a high risk of extinction due in a large part to Chile's continued release of two European bumble bees—Bombus terrestris and Bombus ruderatus—in the name of supporting agriculture, but unnecessarily. Although the importation was banned before it began in Argentina, B terrestris has spread like wildfire, crossing the Andes and causing the precipitous decline of dahlbomii, which is also known as El abejorro chileno, abejorro colorado, the giant bumble bee, mangangá del Sur o moscardón del bosque.
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Bumble bees are not only important, they are beautiful, fascinating creatures that we still know so little about. Plant some wildflowers, don't spray pesticides, watch them and be amazed. Northern yellow bumble bee on Monarda, Bombus fervidus, Billings, Montana.
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La Esperanza
That church in La Mesa
Slivers of glass, jade green
Teeth in a skull
Orange blossom fragrance
And dropped fruit
The sound of its falling
Older than god
Through the cracked wall
One word, Esperanza
illuminated in golden light
And as the day fades
A thousand buzzing bees
Herald the sacred
In this holy place
(Written after visiting an abandoned church in La Mesa, Colombia covered by generations old stingless bee nests (Partamonte peckolti). The church grounds have been converted into a wild orchard of flourishing orange trees.
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Honestly, I can't get over how beautiful the Andean red bumble bee (Bombus rubicundus) is. I'm still processing images from my recent trip to Colombia. What a gorgeous insect! In this photo, a worker is visiting an Espeletia sp flower on a misty morning in the Colombian Páramo at Montaña de Oso in the Eastern Andes, Chía, Colombia
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A world with common yellowthroats is a world worth fighting for.
Photographed on Indigenous lands. Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota.
@world_wildlife
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