Metallic bees and awakening the dormant fangirl

[jaunthie]

One of the native species of bee that visits my gardens every year is a metallic-green, super-speedy solitary bee. We've been documenting them for years, and we're fairly sure it's a ground-nesting species, but they're really fast, really shy, and surprisingly easy to overlook despite being that insane shade of iridescent green, so we've never been able to really pin down the exact species. (Yes, we have several books on bees, including the local Bible of native insect species. fisherbear did his Master's on cognition in bees, and maintains a keen interest in our local bee populations. He's even caught and taken one of our green girls to the local expert at the university, who was also stumped for an exact identification. There are a *lot* of species out there, and not all of them have been identified.) Up until now the green bees have been something of an oddity compared to the rest of the bees we've seen in my yard, at least in terms of color.

That is until last Friday, when fisherbear spotted a completely different metallic bee going to town on my fennel blossoms (along with at least eight other distinct species. The bees are *insanely* fond of my fennel blossoms this year, not to mention the lavender, the thyme, the oregano, the anise hyssop, the borage, the poppies, the catmint, the mustards...did I mention that I plant for pollinators?). This bee was equally as speedy and skittish as the green ladies, only much smaller - and bright metallic BLUE.

Now we do have a blue Orchard Mason bee species (Osmia lignaria) native to our area, but this little girl was much smaller than our Osmias, much more brightly colored, and MUCH faster and more agile. Whatever this species is, she's not that. This, combined with the fact that we've never seen her before in our garden, has us both very excited. I hope we see her again. It also has me thinking about what possible evolutionary advantage there might be for solitary bees to evolve in such striking shades. You'd think that being inconspicuous would be a better advantage (take, for example, the aforementioned blue Orchard Mason, which is really more of a black with blue highlights, and easy to overlook), but with two bright-metallic-colored species appearing in our yard, there must be some niche advantage being expressed. Both metallic species are exceptionally fast and agile on the wing, disinclined to linger, and are very skittish, so clearly they've evolved a "yikes! get out of here now!" adaptation to their eye-catching, hey-that-might-be-a-tasty-bug coloration. I'd love to have time to look into this more, as it fascinates me. And we're having really good bee weather right now: hot, dry, and sunny. As long as I keep the garden reasonably watered, the flowers will keep on setting out feasts for the bees, who happily answer the dinner bell.

Of course, it is hot. Which does make me disinclined to stir, especially in the height of the day. Or do much of anything, really. I don't like being overheated, and it's been just hot and sticky enough to make the idea of staying indoors and maybe get caught up on some television sound very appealing. Mostly I try to squelch such impulses, particularly since I have so many other things that I should be doing (WRITING! Cleaning! Gardening! Watering! and a long Etcetera!). However, this past week and change I've given in to the siren song of beat-the-heat (not to mention distract-myself-from-discomfort) and set myself to watching the used-but-like-new set of the Donna Noble season of Doctor Who. Hey, I had to make sure the discs were all good, right? And while I was at it, I noticed that the latest Who specials were set to run on BBC America, and I set the DVR to tape them. Why not? And then there's that Torchwood show, which I've never watched, but there's a five-part special, so why not set the DVR for that too while I'm at it.

Oh dear. Oh my.

On the up side, I've quite enjoyed indulging my old-school Whovian fangirl with new Who. I've been rather slow to pick up on the relaunched series, more due to a lack of time than inclination, although I admit to some trepidation in letting her come to the fore. I remember just how consuming Who can be from back in the day. And that's the down side, because now that I've re-awoken the beast, she's DEMANDING that I get the Martha season (which I haven't seen) RIGHT NOW. And that I should go back and rewatch the Eccleston season (which I saw in fits and starts over the course of a year or so) and the first Tennant season too, and maybe I really should borrow some Torchwood season sets too, and why *NOT* stay up late and watch Planet of the Dead even though it's Sunday night and I have to get up and get to WORK at the crack of dawn tomorrow?

I resisted the urge to stay up to watch Planet of the Dead last night, but it was hard. I'll probably give in and watch it tonight, assuming I can find an hour or so when fisherbear is otherwise occupied (he dislikes Who to the point where it will drive him out of the room, which is not something I want to do). And maybe a little more Who; SciFi is running a Doctor Who marathon today, and I set the DVR to record some of those Martha episodes. (No, I don't necessarily watch Who episodes in order. That wasn't really an option growing up as a Whovian in the USA; you either learned to catch what you could when you could and figure it out as you went along, or you were out of luck. I haven't lost that knack.)

But I really, really, REALLY shouldn't be letting myself get sucked in like this again. I have MANY other things I should be doing. Moderation. I have to remember moderation. I don't have to see it all right now this second thankyouverymuch.

Oh help.

Comments

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

If you have not watched the Torchwood miniseries yet, fair warning that it is very, very dark, especially in the last couple of episodes. You may want to line up something sunny and fun after, rather than ending an evening with it.

It also benefits somewhat from having the backstory on the characters; if you recorded the "Inside the Hub" special they ran before it that introduces the characters, that would probably be enough.

[jaunthie.livejournal.com]

Good advice. I did indeed tape and watch the Inside the Hub special, as well as one episode of Torchwood from the second season - the one where they're all remembering how they joined Torchwood in the first place. That gave me sufficient grounding for the series (and the "extended looks" after each episode also helped).

And yes, *very* dark. Interesting how British sci-fi is so willing to look at the complexities and dark shadings of going-along, ends-justify-the-means, and no-win situations.

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

I will not let you ignore your inner fan girl too much. ;) Dr. Who is awesome! Especially the Donna Noble season. :D Torchwood...is even more awesome, imho. Tangerinpenguin is right though, Children of Earth is way dark and quite sad but so awesome! Please let me know what you think once you've caught up. ;) Enjoy!