northeast-flora-and-fauna

Though nectar is mostly water, bees do drink plain old water too, and that's what I think these Western Honeybees were up to. Although I didn't catch them in the act of drinking, it didn't appear there was another obvious reason why 2 honeybees would be in this spot unless it was for the water. I've mentioned before that honeybees both forage for and drink water ; perhaps since there was more than 1 here they're foraging for water? My thought process here is that 2 honeybees being thirsty at the same time would be a little coincidental, but if the old homestead (beehive) needs water maybe there was a coordinated effort to bring water back for other honeybees. On the other hand, it may be that these 2 honeybees have been foraging for approximately the same time and on similar flowers, so it wouldn't be shocking if they got thirsty around the same time too and flew down to wet their whistles. June 10, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 300986011, (c) jpviolette, some right...

This Western Honeybee was looking for pollen/nectar on this Oxeye Daisy [1]. Both these species followed Europeans to North America; neither is native to the continent. To see this sight 400 years ago, you couldn't have been in New Jersey since the species hadn't arrived here yet [2]. Today feral honeybees are very common and Oxeye Daisies are not uncommon, just 2 of the many ways that we've altered local ecosystems. It sounds like Oxeye Daisy can dominate a meadow, though I don't usually see that around here. It's possible this is because we've got even more aggressively invasive plants that thwart it. June 3, 2023 at John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve Photo 300859439, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] I'm pretty confident that the flower is not a Mayweed (another non-native) since it has quite a few petals and there isn't a notch at the end of the petals. [2] Technically there wasn't a New Jersey 400 years ago either.

I got 2 confirmations on this ID so I think we can be fairly confident that this is a Golden Northern Bumblebee . (It does have a prominent black band on its thorax and an especially yellow abdomen like any good Golden Northern Bumblebee.) Despite the "northern" part of its name, it can occasionally be found in places like Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. The name isn't entirely inappropriate though, since it does sound like they're more common in the northeast than down south. Each spring the queens emerge from hibernation and feed on nectar/pollen until they're strong/healthy enough to start a colony. They'll each build a nest and lay 8-10 eggs for whom she provides honey. When these bees grow up, they take over the foraging and the care of the next generation of eggs the queen lays; at this point the queen's responsibilities shift from being a do-everything mom to mostly being the egg-layer. In the fall, some of the eggs develop into males (drones) and n...

I got an ID on an older picture today, and to celebrate I'm sharing it. This has been identified as a White-banded Crab Spider . I had assumed it was a Goldenrod Crab Spider , mostly because it looked like a yellow crab spider that was lurking amongst the goldenrods. I don't feel too badly about my misidentification: My spider field guide says they look similar. A white/pale band across the face of the White-banded Crab Spider is considered to be the biggest difference between the 2 species, and I didn't exactly get an unobstructed view of the head of the spider. Although both are considered good-sized by the standards of our crab spiders, they're still pretty small. A big female is still under a half inch, and a big male is a third of that. It's kind of hard to see details on any animal this small. I'm pretty sure the unlucky prey is a Western Honeybee . The bee no doubt failed to see a yellow spider hiding in the yellow flowers, a mistake that proved fatal to...

After my 1st persistent [1] snowfall of the season I figured I'd show something warm today. Perhaps the spirit of Muhammad Ali was out there, since some of the meadow denizens could float like a butterfly and others could sting like a bee. This little lady stings exactly like a bee, since she's a Western Honeybee , and was busy with a goldenrod. She does not sting much like Muhammad Ali in one way though, since she dies after stinging. October 6, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 249884608, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) This next denizen isn't a kamikaze stinger; it's a Dark Paper Wasp . Assuming this is a female, she can (like many bees/wasps) sting without dying herself. She's also foraging on a goldenrod. October 6, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 249884670, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) And finally, who floats like a butterfly better than a Monarch butterfly? (I suppose other butterfly species might argue they float even better, but Monarch...

Did you know that bees drink water? Below are some Western Honeybees slurping up some water from a puddle that frequently forms in one of the lower areas of the Sourland Mountain Preserve.  You might think that they can get all the water they need from nectar, which is basically just sugary water. But that's not really the case; they actually need more water than that. Social bees like the honeybees can also carry water back home, either for non-foraging bees to consume or to air condition their nest . I've heard of people who try and provide a water source for bees, maybe using a pan with marbles in it and water a little below the tops of the marbles. I actually tried that once when I was still working and when I came home most of the marbles had been knocked out of the pan. (I'm sure an animal much larger than bees did that, probably accidentally. My leading suspects were squirrels, stray cats, or birds.) Did you know that bees use morning dew as a water source? If you...

Though flower flies, moths, and butterflies are all pollinators, perhaps the classic pollinators are the bees. And in central New Jersey the most commonly seen bees are the Western Honey Bees and the bumble bees , with the Common Eastern Bumble Bee being the most frequently seen bumblebee. These 2 types of bees are fairly closely related, both residing in the same insect subfamily . Generally speaking you can tell them apart because honeybees tend to be thinner, less hairy, and with a clear distinction between the head and thorax, while bumblebees tend to be rounder, quite hairy, and it's hard to tell where the thorax ends and the head begins. There is a key difference between the way bees pollinate and the way butterflies and moths pollinate. Butterflies and moths are just looking to drink nectar and only accidentally transport pollen from plant-to-plant. Bees on the other hand will drink nectar but will also purposely transport pollen back to their nest to be eaten, though so...

Here's a Western Honeybee harvesting nectar and pollen from late last summer. She drinks nectar in 2 ways: When drinking something with relatively little sugary nectar, she'll drink by sucking. When drinking something sugary and more viscous, she'll lap it up. She's also bringing pollen back to the hive for food. You can see the orangish globe on the abdomen; that's her pollen basket . While nectar mostly provides the carbohydrates that bees need, pollen provides them with protein. Fortunately for plants, while honeybees take as much pollen as they can for their own needs, they still end up spilling some of it, pollinating many plants while doing so. Though there is no doubt that honeybees are important to agriculture, they can contribute to the decline of native pollinators and the spread of non-native plants . It would probably be better if honeybees could be restricted to pollinating crops rather than mixing with nature, though that goal falls somewhere between...

With their furry-looking bodies and big eyes, I'd argue that the Western Honey Bee is one of the best insect models for a plush toy. (Admittedly some moths and butterflies also have these traits.) The honeybees are a little controversial in the environmental community, at least when they're living wild. While acknowledging that they're important for agriculture, most wild honeybees aren't pollinating our orchards and groves but are instead considered an invasive species that's competing against our native pollinators like bumblebees, wasps, butterflies, moths, and flower flies. And they may be one of the main pollinators of invasive plants that many of our native pollinators don't recognize as a pollen/nectar source, and thus wouldn't propagate well without them. Still, there aren't major efforts being made to remove them, except perhaps by beekeepers looking to give them a home. And they're generally well-behaved insects too; I routinely get close ...

The Plainsboro Preserve had a honeybee hive out adjacent to one of their meadows. Though these are not wild bees (that hive was no doubt made and is being maintained by humans), there are also plenty of Western (aka European) Honeybees that are living wild in New Jersey. I don't know the backstory on this hive. I'm assuming there were plants the preserve wanted pollinated, though it's possible that honeybees are a part of one of their educational programs.  Honeybees are a slightly controversial insect, at least when they're not pollinating agricultural crops. This is because they aren't a native insect but are instead an introduced species, and when they take nectar/pollen from our flowers there is just less out there for our native pollinators (e.g. bumblebees, sweat bees, wasps, flower flies, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds). I suppose they might also help spread invasive plants they recognize as a food source that native pollinators might fail to recognize, th...