03 December 2013

Long-tongued bumblebee and foxglove

While the foxgloves still flower, the bumblebees make the most of the opportunity.

Four species of bumblebee were introduced to New Zealand, but one is found only in the South Island. Of the other three, one, Bombus terrestris, has a short tongue, meaning it's less effective at pollinating some types of flower. The bee in this photograph is one of the two long-tongued bumble bees (probably B. ruderatus — please correct me if I'm wrong).


[30 November 2013, Olympus OM-D EM-1, 60 mm f2.8 Macro , ISO 200, 1/1250 at f4]

All content © 2013 Pete McGregor

6 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Stunning photo. And a v buxy bee.

Relatively Retiring said...

Wonderful - literally.

Barbara Butler McCoy said...

Sensational! You have quite the eye ;0 I love color, so that foxglove is amazing. Love the Bombus, too.

Brenda Schmidt said...

Just gorgeous!

Zhoen said...

The world at that scale is a fuzzy, spiky place.

pohanginapete said...

Thank you for the comments, everyone — and thanks for appreciating this small world, which can be so easily overlooked.
:^)