Holy Macro!

I like looking closely at things. Maybe that's due to my ever increasing age. I have one pair of glasses I use when viewing my computer screen and another I use while reading. Both are the inexpensive magnifier kind. When I look at pictures or video, they let me see the detail.  

You probably have younger eyes than I do, but maybe you also enjoy closeup shots, especially of nature. My camera has a macro setting that allows for all sorts of closeups and I intend to share some of my latest with you today. 

I've been able to see both an old bee and younger ones. I think I can age them by the appearance of their wings. I also think I can see variations in the way they fly because of their physical conditions. I don't know if I'm right in my judgements, but I base them on the following pictures.  See what you think.   

Here are a few flowers that I walked by in the garden next to our library and cafe. I didn't see any bees here. 

I like  what I call 'flame-colored' roses best.  They seem to produce their own light internally.  

I took these flower pictures and most of the bee pictures and video on November 23, 2023. The orange tree bees I took about two weeks ago.  

For some unknown reason, that missing petal grabbed my attention.**

**  His name was Albert Otradovec.  He was Jeanne's uncle and he sold us our first house and 20 acres for a very good price back in 1975.  He told me lots of stories about life when he was a young man in Gourley Township. His favorite expression when telling a story seemed to be, "For some unknown reason," which he would say with a bit of a Bohemian accent. He was a great guy.  When he died, I decided to appropriate his saying and honor his memory each time I repeated it.  I know that I've used it many hundreds of times in the last 50 years. Jeanne knows what I mean whenever she hears it.  

Most of my photos today will be of bees. We're coming into summer here in New Zealand and the bees are starting to really work. 

This is a honey bee from our own hives. 

I think this is the first bee I've ever caught on camera in 'sol y sombra,' sun and shade, that is.

Most of taking photos for me is pure luck. The shutter clicked in 1/1600 of a second for this one. Obviously I had no part in planning anything.   

This is what I was talking about earlier. I'd like you to to pay special attention to this bee's wings. Look at how short and jagged they are. This must be an old bee.  For comparison, just go back up to my last bee picture, the one in flight away from the white flower and see how well formed its wings are. Yes, I know that they are different kinds of bees. This is a bumble and the other is a honey. Still, wings are wings and they must become damaged with use. 

This is the same bee, the one with the stubby wings from just above. 

Look at how the back end of this bee seems to be held lower. Its rear legs are very low.  I think it is forced to fly this way because of the reduced lift of its wings.

This is another bee, one with longer wings.  I've included it because of the way the light is reflecting off its wings.  

Another great look at its wings. This taken at 1/800 second exposure. 

Now, consider the angle of this bee. Its back end isn't held as low with the rear legs dragging like the bee in the picture two frames ago. 

Here is a bee that appears to be slimmer than the others I've shown you.  And look how much pollen, etc., is sticking to it.  

One of our blossoming orange trees.

This is a rather odd view of this bee. It has bent its abdomen down and its wings, which grow out of its thorax, appear to almost come from its fuzzy head.  

Here's a better look at this bee.

Finally today, I have something really interesting to show you.  

It occurred to me yesterday that if my macro setting would allow close-up pictures to be taken, maybe it would also allow close-up videos to be taken as well.  I experimented and found that it did. Well, now all I needed was a subject.  

As it happened, I found a bumble bee that had been stopped in its flight hiveward by a large pane of glass. I knew it was heading home since its corbiculae, or pollen baskets, on its hind legs were huge. It sat down for a rest apparently and began to clean itself. I began filming it without realizing that I would see anything special.

It wasn't long before she (worker bees are female) began her clean up. First, it appears that she smooths one corbicula with the bottom of her wing. Then, she starts to clean her mouthparts and wow, I had never seen a bee's tongue before.  It's quite a structure.  

I have included a picture of it below so that you'll be able to identify it when you see her stick it out, which she does repeatedly.  I never knew that a bee's tongue is fuzzy on the end to make nectar harvest more efficient.     

Her tongue is contained within a sheath, which she normally carries tucked up under her head, but that she can swing forward for feeding. 

Once the video starts, I suggest that you pause it immediately by clicking anywhere on the screen and look at the task bar on the lower right. There is an icon that looks like a gear and is the 'settings' control. Clicking it will allow you to choose a playback speed.  I chose the .25 for as slow as possible, but you can do as you like. You can easily see her tongue, even if viewed at normal speed. Then, select the 'full screen' option by clicking on the square at the far right end of that same task bar. Bigger is definitely better when you're trying to see a bee's tongue.    

Here we go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZaHt3rwB4

I hope that you've enjoyed yourselves today. I'll end the post today with a couple of last macros. This is a crane fly that Jeanne spotted on the back of our drapes one day, after we had left the balcony door open.    -djf

I love the look of these flies. Their bodies look like machines.           -djf

The make me think of the ornithopter scene from Dune.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYPuhItRqVk

You could I suppose, argue that the ornithopters are more dragon fly-like than crane fly-like.  Had a dragon fly come by the day I took this picture, it would be displayed here instead of Mr. Crane.              -djf