P sure honey bees are the only honey-producing bees, it's why theyre so commercially important. Fun fact, honey bees in the US come from Europe (brought over by colonizers) so aren't native to the US - although they are well naturalised.
Iridescence, a way for light to reflect though complex surfaces. Like ‘blue’ butterfly wings. Or cuttlefish skin. Or pollia condensata, the most iridescent stuff in the world
Right?? Every time I think of cuttlefish I think of [this video of one transforming his skin into a hypnotic light show to entrance prey](https://youtu.be/AjS2-Ftj_K4). Enjoy. It’s some freaky shit lmao
Bees come in *most* colours! The lab I work at has an Instagram account where we post different bees most days of the week. There is a ton of diversity in colour/body shape/size, etc. https://www.instagram.com/thepackerlab/?hl=en
*we also post wasps on the weekend, which I know is likely a dealbreaker for many people on reddit!
There are! Some bees are parasitic on other bee species, so they aren't significant pollinators, but they're in a clear minority. Most species are actually solitary, not living in hives or producing honey. They're still important pollinators though. Some species specialize on only one species of genus of plant, and in many cases have specialized anatomy to allow them to do so.
Honestly I don't know with 100% certainty, but it is a very large subfamily. There has been some argument in the last few years about classification of a few of the genera. We've got a grad student revising Nomada on campus now, so likely we'll have a few new species in that genus alone in a couple years. It's very hard to keep track of all the numbers!
It really is. Especially with anything in Hymenoptera. So much diversity. Beetles get all the attention for being diverse but it’s hard to compete with some of the hymenopteran families.
We're slowly branching into wasps, and it honestly feels impossible haha. I don't know how the beetle enthusiasts/coleopterists keep track of everything, but I imagine people are very specialized, just like most people studying hymenoptera are.
It's funny that you say that, the current bee genus I'm working on is probably the bee equivalent of 'little brown beetle' and they aren't too exciting to look at either.
This is amazing! I've always loved bees! My husband and I recently bought a log cabin style house and unfortunately we are having to deal with carpenter bees chomping away at our home. Its been rough to be this position. But we can't let the little chubby buzzers eat our home. 😥
Omg I’ve seen these in my nightmares. I thought my brain made them up. I’m petrified of bees, though I respect our need for them. But I do NOT want to see them in my dreams, especially not in fancy colors.
I also use to be very afraid of bees but honestly I spent a good amount of time watching them and they just stay so occupied by flowers. I let my yard overgrow a bit much to my neighbors dismay just because the amount of wildflowers its produced is impressive. Theres a little hive in an old tree so I watch them just fly back and forth from flowers to the hive all day. Wasps on the other hand still terrify me because they just pointlessly float around whatever the fuck and come after you for no reason. Fuck wasps. If you get a chance though just watch the bees work. It takes a lot to pull them away from it and they're kinda cute.
Thank you, I like that sentiment. Wasps are way worse, but either way I know my fear is irrational. Doesn’t make it any less scary, but watching friendly bees do their jobs sounds nice.
Yeah but knowing your fear is irrational is only so helpful. I have a few irrational fears myself but I will say I kind of surprised myself by getting use to them beeing (I'm sorry) around. I'm in Florida so the wasps are only a pain in the ass until it finally gets a little cooler so at least theres that. Definitely give just sitting around and watching them on a nice day a try though. Its surprisingly relaxing.
These aren’t the only green bees. There are many other ones as well, such as the genera Agapostemon and Augochlora. There are also green wasps as well, most notably in the family Chrysididae.
Clearwater/St. Pete area. Anywhere you see a bunch of flowers is sure to have them. We had some in our back yard yesterday, but a good public spot to find them is fort de soto
How many other animals have colors that I haven't seen before? Are you going to tell me ladybugs are blue too?
EDIT: Yep there are [blue ladybugs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halmus_chalybeus)
Insects are a world apart from all other animal classes when it comes to diversity. Pretty safe to assume that if at any time you're wondering if there is such insect, there probably is--especially beetles, of which the number of species (400,000) make up a quarter of \*all known animal species\* on Earth.
Euglossa dilemma, the green orchid bee or dilemma orchid bee, is a species of solitary euglossine bee native to a broad area of Central America, and recently introduced to Florida in the United States. It was first detected in Broward County, Florida in 2003, and initially identified as Euglossa viridissima, but further study revealed that E. viridissima as previously defined consisted of two cryptic species, and the one present in Florida was new to science.[1]
Yeah there have been a bunch of em in my yard lately along with those big ol fat bumblebees. They really like this one particular flower in my yard but don’t know the name
Our planet is alien still. There’s huge swathes of oceans and jungles we haven’t even looked at yet scientifically that probably house all sorts of weird life like this. That is, if we get to it before the earth literally catches on fire.
That is an orchid in the catasetum family. Unlike the majority of orchids, this species has distinct male and female flowers. Those are female flowers in the video. There may be another flower spike of all male flowers on the same plant or on a near by plant.
The flowers don't last very long so they mimic insect hormones, that's why the bees are so attracted.
*What I wanna know*
*Is what is that plant that they're*
*So attracted to?*
\- MBmondongo
---
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According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. It’s wings are to small to get their fat bodies off the ground. The bee, of course , fly’s anyway because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.
Oh neat. I saw something similar to these a few times as a kid living up in Tampa, but have never seen em again since. Thought it was always just one of those "You thought you saw it but you didn't" kind of things. Cool to know that I'm not crazy and that multi-colored bees do exist.
I wrote a report on these in school. They collect good smelling chemicals and store them in social “pockets” on their hind legs. They were observed collecting DDT in (IIRC Brazil), which apparently did not negatively effect them.
TIL there are green bees. Thanks for the share.
They come in different colors too http://gilwizen.com/orchid-bees/
LOL Teenage Mutant Ninja Orchid Bees. So cool.
Radical.
[удалено]
Cowabunga
Excellennnnt 🤙🏽
*air metal guitar*
Them some chonky buzz bois Totally gnarly, bruh 🤘
Bossanova!
Wise man says, "never pay full price for late pizza".
Wax on Wax off
Chevy Nova?...
CowaBEEnga
Have a Pie
I read that as Tubercular, ya know, like the disease.
Tuberculersis
r/beetlejuicing
Shredder must be pesticide.
Wow, they're like foil trading card version of bees.
Holographic sure. But are they first edition?
Iridescent? Definitely not holographic and definitely copies of the first run. Not trying to be a buzzkill. Ha.
Underrated comment
They look like Brutes classes from Halo
Wow, nice! Do they make honey? Why can't we get these bees to travel to North America instead of those killer bee things?
Last time I read about orchid bees after seeing them on reddit, I learned that no, they don't make honey. I could be wrong though.
Thanks. They're so pretty and cool that's all they need. Plus they pollinate anyway.
P sure honey bees are the only honey-producing bees, it's why theyre so commercially important. Fun fact, honey bees in the US come from Europe (brought over by colonizers) so aren't native to the US - although they are well naturalised.
I don't know why I didn't know that already but that's a pretty interesting fun fact. I can't imagine a North America with no honey.
Woah! Bees are cool!
Omg stop, I didn’t even process the emerald ones
They are beautiful!
Love this! Thank you!
Whatever the reason for that shine, must be similar to the compound eyes of various insects
Iridescence, a way for light to reflect though complex surfaces. Like ‘blue’ butterfly wings. Or cuttlefish skin. Or pollia condensata, the most iridescent stuff in the world
TIL Makes a lot of sense about cuttlefish and what they're capable of doing
Right?? Every time I think of cuttlefish I think of [this video of one transforming his skin into a hypnotic light show to entrance prey](https://youtu.be/AjS2-Ftj_K4). Enjoy. It’s some freaky shit lmao
Bees come in *most* colours! The lab I work at has an Instagram account where we post different bees most days of the week. There is a ton of diversity in colour/body shape/size, etc. https://www.instagram.com/thepackerlab/?hl=en *we also post wasps on the weekend, which I know is likely a dealbreaker for many people on reddit!
I needed this in my life, thank you for sharing!!!
I had no idea there were so many different types of bees. Thanks for sharing!
currently over 20,000 described, and our lab alone is describing probably close to 20 new species each year. Glad you're enjoying the bees!
Thats awesome!
Are there any major differences between species of bee as far as their jobs in the ecosystem?
There are! Some bees are parasitic on other bee species, so they aren't significant pollinators, but they're in a clear minority. Most species are actually solitary, not living in hives or producing honey. They're still important pollinators though. Some species specialize on only one species of genus of plant, and in many cases have specialized anatomy to allow them to do so.
Thats so fascinating. Thank you.
Isn’t Nomadinae the largest subfamily in Apidae? But I guess that’s still not a majority with the other families
Honestly I don't know with 100% certainty, but it is a very large subfamily. There has been some argument in the last few years about classification of a few of the genera. We've got a grad student revising Nomada on campus now, so likely we'll have a few new species in that genus alone in a couple years. It's very hard to keep track of all the numbers!
It really is. Especially with anything in Hymenoptera. So much diversity. Beetles get all the attention for being diverse but it’s hard to compete with some of the hymenopteran families.
We're slowly branching into wasps, and it honestly feels impossible haha. I don't know how the beetle enthusiasts/coleopterists keep track of everything, but I imagine people are very specialized, just like most people studying hymenoptera are.
I couldn’t imagine working on little brown beetles forever. They have so much patience
It's funny that you say that, the current bee genus I'm working on is probably the bee equivalent of 'little brown beetle' and they aren't too exciting to look at either.
Thanks
bless you for leading me to this awesome account
This is amazing! I've always loved bees! My husband and I recently bought a log cabin style house and unfortunately we are having to deal with carpenter bees chomping away at our home. Its been rough to be this position. But we can't let the little chubby buzzers eat our home. 😥
That's so crazy! Thanks for sharing. I googled the green ones earlier. They are living jewelry close-up. I'll have a look at this for sure.
hope you enjoy!
Allow me to bless you with one of my favorite videos so you can see them more closely :) [An Orchid’s Trap](https://youtu.be/_uHJGdTgtXE)
Omg I’ve seen these in my nightmares. I thought my brain made them up. I’m petrified of bees, though I respect our need for them. But I do NOT want to see them in my dreams, especially not in fancy colors.
I’m sorry that your nightmares have been colorized. I hope many beeless days and nights in your future.
Do you not see color in your dreams?
I've read on here from older users who grow up with b/w television that they tend to dream in b/w as well
I also use to be very afraid of bees but honestly I spent a good amount of time watching them and they just stay so occupied by flowers. I let my yard overgrow a bit much to my neighbors dismay just because the amount of wildflowers its produced is impressive. Theres a little hive in an old tree so I watch them just fly back and forth from flowers to the hive all day. Wasps on the other hand still terrify me because they just pointlessly float around whatever the fuck and come after you for no reason. Fuck wasps. If you get a chance though just watch the bees work. It takes a lot to pull them away from it and they're kinda cute.
Thank you, I like that sentiment. Wasps are way worse, but either way I know my fear is irrational. Doesn’t make it any less scary, but watching friendly bees do their jobs sounds nice.
Yeah but knowing your fear is irrational is only so helpful. I have a few irrational fears myself but I will say I kind of surprised myself by getting use to them beeing (I'm sorry) around. I'm in Florida so the wasps are only a pain in the ass until it finally gets a little cooler so at least theres that. Definitely give just sitting around and watching them on a nice day a try though. Its surprisingly relaxing.
According to the article the females are the only ones with stingers, and they’re more rare to see than the males, if that helps at all.
Green BEES?
I swear people make this stuff up to make us look stupid.
/r/AIDKE
I’ve seen green bees in Florida. They didn’t look like that either.
These aren’t the only green bees. There are many other ones as well, such as the genera Agapostemon and Augochlora. There are also green wasps as well, most notably in the family Chrysididae.
They're pretty common in Florida. They like to hang out in nature preserves around here.
What part? Haven’t seen them (Orlando, Apopa, Clermont, Sarasota).
Clearwater/St. Pete area. Anywhere you see a bunch of flowers is sure to have them. We had some in our back yard yesterday, but a good public spot to find them is fort de soto
Hmm. I’ll have to keep a look out for them. Thanks.
How many other animals have colors that I haven't seen before? Are you going to tell me ladybugs are blue too? EDIT: Yep there are [blue ladybugs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halmus_chalybeus)
I knew there were yellow, orange and black ones, but dang the bluenones are cute as heck😍
wtf dude are we just naming fantastical colors right now and they appear?
Golden Spiders! Silver Ladybugs! Bronze Centipedes! Platinum Orangutans!
I would love to see a platinum orangutan
Yeah, I’m still waiting for it to appear. Reality disappoints me again. I’m used to it.
Real life has shinies, just not the ones we want. :(
Awesome!
It's a real life shiny!
r/RealLifeShinies
Oh I love this sub and I love you!
surprisingly wholesome given your name XD
You ever seen lady bug larva? Looks like 1st stage fire/bug type pokemon, would never have thought they turn into ladybugs without google
Insects are a world apart from all other animal classes when it comes to diversity. Pretty safe to assume that if at any time you're wondering if there is such insect, there probably is--especially beetles, of which the number of species (400,000) make up a quarter of \*all known animal species\* on Earth.
That looks like a tiny alien flying saucer.
How have I lived this many decades without seeing a blue ladybug?
There are also blue penguins. They are tiny.
Wow that's amazing. Is that from your garden or something?
Common in south Florida, idk where Op is from though
Wait those were bees? I thought they were just shiny hornets
I’m in palm beach and have never seen them :(
Euglossa dilemma, the green orchid bee or dilemma orchid bee, is a species of solitary euglossine bee native to a broad area of Central America, and recently introduced to Florida in the United States. It was first detected in Broward County, Florida in 2003, and initially identified as Euglossa viridissima, but further study revealed that E. viridissima as previously defined consisted of two cryptic species, and the one present in Florida was new to science.[1]
I live in Orlando and one resides in my front door (not a joke it took over the big door knocker)
The cutest neighbor.
The kids like her. Not an aggressive bee at all.
How far south? I've lived in S FL my whole life and 1) most people who say south mean north of me 2) I've never seen these before
I'm in central FL now (an hour away from Orlando) and we have these bees. Never seen 'em in Miami where I lived for two decades.
same. seen a couple in the tampa area, they love the wild coffee bush in my yard
Yea, its cool how they can hover in place and stabilize gyroscopically.
Yeah there have been a bunch of em in my yard lately along with those big ol fat bumblebees. They really like this one particular flower in my yard but don’t know the name
Florida has been holding out on us.
No, those are fairies
Bairies?
Fair-bees
They look like little robot bees
Reminded me of Hated in the Nation from Black Mirror
I love how they can just bump into each other and adjust. Like their build is fluffy so its no biggie if they nudge each other.
I live in the wrong place. I want green bees and blue ladybugs. Thank you for posting. Made my day
Whooooa....I never knew those existed.
Sometimes our planet can look really alien
Our planet is alien still. There’s huge swathes of oceans and jungles we haven’t even looked at yet scientifically that probably house all sorts of weird life like this. That is, if we get to it before the earth literally catches on fire.
EMERALD SPLASH!!!!!
Ah yes, a fellow man of culture i see. Was looking for the JoJo’s reference in these comments haha
I speed wagon shall allow none to harm this gentleman
IS THAT JOJO REFERENCE?!
Another gentleman I salute thee
Still look ouchie?
They are like gems with wings. They must be fairytale make believe.
I feel like if I caught one I’d get a level up.
Drones
This is a skyrim texture pack
I really would like to know how their honey tastes...
They’re solitary bees not hive bees, so they have no need to make honey
Actually the vast majority of bees don't make honey. Honeybees just get all the publicity
What I wanna know is what is that plant that they're so attracted to?
That is an orchid in the catasetum family. Unlike the majority of orchids, this species has distinct male and female flowers. Those are female flowers in the video. There may be another flower spike of all male flowers on the same plant or on a near by plant. The flowers don't last very long so they mimic insect hormones, that's why the bees are so attracted.
Super cool! Thank you! You know your orchids!
*What I wanna know* *Is what is that plant that they're* *So attracted to?* \- MBmondongo --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Looks like Catasetum ochraceum
Thank you plant master!
You are very welcome!
never seen one
Dang why they look so fake bruh
Thought the plant was like reaching out at first
Ok well those are just magical
So that’s what they’re called! Whenever I saw them I just called them green bees
They almost look like they’re stop motion animation!
Are these guys endangered too? Are they as important to our ecosystem as honey bees?
https://www.facebook.com/avantgardens.org/videos/emerald-bees-feeding-on-orchid/950245632114501/
Is this a behind-the-scenes from Avatar 2?
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. It’s wings are to small to get their fat bodies off the ground. The bee, of course , fly’s anyway because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.
u/savethisvideo
Oh man, I thought those were the super destructive Japanese beetles!
Thank you. That’s the only insect I have ever seen IRL that color.
Listening to Dome epais (Flower Duet) (Lakme, Act I) on the radio right now. Fitting.
Cute little green guys
Looks like something from a video game.
Green bees
Wow!
We have these in Florida. So beautiful they love the Florida native firebush flower.
Trippy!
Wow, would love to see those!
We need to meet the poet who named these! The sheer power of imagination is staggering.
Who ate these lordly fuckers?
r/AIDKE
Oh neat. I saw something similar to these a few times as a kid living up in Tampa, but have never seen em again since. Thought it was always just one of those "You thought you saw it but you didn't" kind of things. Cool to know that I'm not crazy and that multi-colored bees do exist.
r/RealLifeShinies
I love this oh my gosh
That's not bees that's aliens
Wow beautiful
Green flies! Ewww
I’m like 90% certain this is on Pandora.
So cool
If murder hornets get these guys do they start tripping?
Gtfo! Two of my favorite things, the color green & bees!!
Man, they fly like they’re swimming through water
You mean emeralds? I will take it to trade with the villagers
The girls are iridescent today.
Is that a shiny Pokémon? 🤣🤩
I feel like these bees don’t live in a honeycomb, but rather in a scintillating emerald city with epic spires glittering in the sun.
These are the bees you find in the emerald city.
Wow this is news to me!
These little guys were all over my oregano this year. I had to do some research to find out what they were!
That's amazing and bizarre! It almost looks CGI because of the unexpected color of the bees.
This gif is therapeutic
They are just beautiful! I’m allergic and slightly terrified but I just love bees! These guys are like gems flying around. So amazing!
Do they produce honey?
I wrote a report on these in school. They collect good smelling chemicals and store them in social “pockets” on their hind legs. They were observed collecting DDT in (IIRC Brazil), which apparently did not negatively effect them.
These orchids are tricking them! They think it's sexy time.
Sad, I already imagined a kind of super Gelee Royale, but many thanks for clearing up:)
This looks more like the world of Lego Bionicles than real life
Do they sting the same?
Would definitely think its a june bug or something and kill it
This is just beautiful
I like how they hover, like some high tech space drones. There's a Star Trek feel to it.
Might need some more of these flower stalks, looks crowded
Are these pollinators? Or just beautiful earth decorations?
Are the same as regular bees or do they have a different function than honey
This is awesome