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Honored Contributor
Posts: 10,197
Registered: ‎07-29-2014

Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact

[ Edited ]

awww-dorable  

 

Turns Out, There’s A Bee Species That Sleep In Flowers And It’s As Cute As It Sounds

 

BoredPanda.com     May 16, 2019

 

We need bees. They’re the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. In fact, it is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees. But as much as we are used to seeing them buzzing with work, they need their beauty sleep as well. Recently, wildlife photographer Joe Neely captured two bees snuggling in a flower, and the shot shows a beautiful side of them we rarely witness.

 

“The story behind this photos [begins when] me and my fiancé Niccole went out to find poppy flowers,” Neely told Bored Panda. “On the way back we saw this patch of pink flowers just off the highway so we stopped to take some photos.”

 

 

“Niccole was shooting over this since orange Globe Mallow plant that was hidden inside all of these pink flowers and she heard the bees buzzing about,” the 38-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, said. “Then she notices that some of the flowers had bees in them but they were not moving.”

 

 

 “I came over and study it for a while and more bees showed up. Soon, all the vacant flowers were occupied and this one bee was left out.  She crawled over to this open flower and got inside with the other one. I was watching as he stumbled around almost drunk-like and then got settled in.”

 

 

“Wel,l I never knew that bees slept in flowers but as it turns out these bees (Diadasia diminuta) sleep in the orange flowers called Globe Mallows.” The Diadasia diminuta – or simply the globe mallow bee – collects pollen from its favorite food plant, globe mallow (Sphaeralcea). According to Forest Service at the United States Department of Agriculture, their nests are commonly found in partially compacted soil along the margins of dirt roads in the western United States. The globe mallow bees play a major role in the flower’s reproduction. “The bees become covered with pollen visiting the flowers [and] most of this pollen is groomed into the pollen basket on the hind legs and taken back to the nest,” the organization writes on its website. “However, some remains on the body and is deposited on the stigma of each of the next few globe mallow flowers visited. Thus, Diadasia contributes to globe mallow reproduction.

 

When it comes to bees sleeping, there are a few interesting details. “They don’t have eyelids, so you can’t just look for bees with their eyes closed,” Brandon Hopkins, a bee researcher at Washington State University, said. “By carefully watching bees, scientists have found that honey bees stop moving their antenna and in some cases fall over sideways.” The nuances of exactly how and where a bee sleeps depend on where it lives. After all, there are more than 20,000 known species of bees living on our planet. Honey bees, for example, work day and night and take shifts sleeping inside the hive. Their sleep patterns change as they grow up. Younger bees sleep less but older bees catch between 30 minutes and an hour and a half each night, taking little naps of about 15 to 30 seconds at a time.

 

 

But these two globe mallow bees cuddled together in the flower and made the perfect composition, presenting Joe with what became his winning shot for the day. “I used a Nikon d750 and a 150mm macro lens along with an R1C1 Nikon macro flash,” he revealed. The photographer said he approaches bee photography the same way he approaches any other kind of wildlife photography, from rattlesnakes to bisons.

 

 

“I keep a respectable distance and don’t do anything that would change the subject’s behavior. How macro photography is different is that your depth of field is very small or shallow because you are very close to something so tiny. So because of this, I like to shoot with an aperture around f16 to f20, in order to get as much in focus as possible. This usually means there will be a need to introduce artificial lighting, like a flash. Now that may sound annoying but the best part about using a flash is that you don’t have to depend on a fast shutter speed for sharp images. Instead, you are freezing all movement(yours and the subjects) with the speed of light.”

---

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,018
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Squee and cool "I didn't know that!" fact

Nature finds suitable accommodations so much easier than we humans.  

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,984
Registered: ‎03-19-2010

Re: Squee & cool "I didn't know that" nature fact

Amazing article.  @feline groovy your posts are always sooo interesting.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,612
Registered: ‎04-05-2010

Re: Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact

@feline groovy Thanks for posting this...I learned something new today. Those pictures are beautiful!

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Posts: 7,743
Registered: ‎03-15-2010

Re: Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact

@feline groovy 

 

Beautiful and amazing.

 

Those bees covered with pollen are perfect.  

 

Thanks for posting!

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,383
Registered: ‎02-19-2015

Re: Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact

They are soooo sweet, all cuddled up. I want to put a little blanket on them.
Such amazing photographs. Who knew??
Thank you to all the bees for the gorgeous flowers in the world.
Thank you @feline groovy
@Allegheny said it best: I always read and enjoy all your interesting posts. 💚
Super Contributor
Posts: 385
Registered: ‎03-28-2019

Re: Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact


@feline groovy wrote:

awww-dorable  

 

Turns Out, There’s A Bee Species That Sleep In Flowers And It’s As Cute As It Sounds

 

BoredPanda.com     May 16, 2019

 

We need bees. They’re the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. In fact, it is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees. But as much as we are used to seeing them buzzing with work, they need their beauty sleep as well. Recently, wildlife photographer Joe Neely captured two bees snuggling in a flower, and the shot shows a beautiful side of them we rarely witness.

 

“The story behind this photos [begins when] me and my fiancé Niccole went out to find poppy flowers,” Neely told Bored Panda. “On the way back we saw this patch of pink flowers just off the highway so we stopped to take some photos.”

 

 

“Niccole was shooting over this since orange Globe Mallow plant that was hidden inside all of these pink flowers and she heard the bees buzzing about,” the 38-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, said. “Then she notices that some of the flowers had bees in them but they were not moving.”

 

 

 “I came over and study it for a while and more bees showed up. Soon, all the vacant flowers were occupied and this one bee was left out.  She crawled over to this open flower and got inside with the other one. I was watching as he stumbled around almost drunk-like and then got settled in.”

 

 

“Wel,l I never knew that bees slept in flowers but as it turns out these bees (Diadasia diminuta) sleep in the orange flowers called Globe Mallows.” The Diadasia diminuta – or simply the globe mallow bee – collects pollen from its favorite food plant, globe mallow (Sphaeralcea). According to Forest Service at the United States Department of Agriculture, their nests are commonly found in partially compacted soil along the margins of dirt roads in the western United States. The globe mallow bees play a major role in the flower’s reproduction. “The bees become covered with pollen visiting the flowers [and] most of this pollen is groomed into the pollen basket on the hind legs and taken back to the nest,” the organization writes on its website. “However, some remains on the body and is deposited on the stigma of each of the next few globe mallow flowers visited. Thus, Diadasia contributes to globe mallow reproduction.

 

When it comes to bees sleeping, there are a few interesting details. “They don’t have eyelids, so you can’t just look for bees with their eyes closed,” Brandon Hopkins, a bee researcher at Washington State University, said. “By carefully watching bees, scientists have found that honey bees stop moving their antenna and in some cases fall over sideways.” The nuances of exactly how and where a bee sleeps depend on where it lives. After all, there are more than 20,000 known species of bees living on our planet. Honey bees, for example, work day and night and take shifts sleeping inside the hive. Their sleep patterns change as they grow up. Younger bees sleep less but older bees catch between 30 minutes and an hour and a half each night, taking little naps of about 15 to 30 seconds at a time.

 

 

But these two globe mallow bees cuddled together in the flower and made the perfect composition, presenting Joe with what became his winning shot for the day. “I used a Nikon d750 and a 150mm macro lens along with an R1C1 Nikon macro flash,” he revealed. The photographer said he approaches bee photography the same way he approaches any other kind of wildlife photography, from rattlesnakes to bisons.

 

 

“I keep a respectable distance and don’t do anything that would change the subject’s behavior. How macro photography is different is that your depth of field is very small or shallow because you are very close to something so tiny. So because of this, I like to shoot with an aperture around f16 to f20, in order to get as much in focus as possible. This usually means there will be a need to introduce artificial lighting, like a flash. Now that may sound annoying but the best part about using a flash is that you don’t have to depend on a fast shutter speed for sharp images. Instead, you are freezing all movement(yours and the subjects) with the speed of light.”

---


Two bees in a pod instead of 2 peas in a pod.

 

Just wonderful!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,508
Registered: ‎07-09-2010

Re: Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact

[ Edited ]

Sleeping on the job - so cute. I always thought they went back to the hive to sleep. If they sleep in a tulip - nature's blanket.

 

Thank you @feline groovy for making my day

Honored Contributor
Posts: 10,197
Registered: ‎07-29-2014

Re: Squee & cool "I didn't know that" nature fact


@Allegheny wrote:

Amazing article.  @feline groovy your posts are always sooo interesting.


 

Thank you so much, @Allegheny.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 10,197
Registered: ‎07-29-2014

Re: Cool - & squee :) - "didn't know that" nature fact


@MarnieRez3 wrote:
They are soooo sweet, all cuddled up. I want to put a little blanket on them.
Such amazing photographs. Who knew??
Thank you to all the bees for the gorgeous flowers in the world.
Thank you @feline groovy
@Alleghenysaid it best: I always read and enjoy all your interesting posts. 💚

 

Glad to hear that, @MarnieRez3 ; much appreciated.  8)