Emerald Bees

Thanks to @zosimov I was motivated to create this thread. He mentioned my avatar and I wanted to share with him more information about how I came to choose it, but I didn't want to distract from his beautiful thread. www.abovetopsecret.com...

First a little backstory.

I was sitting on my porch one day enjoying the beauty of the backwoods, while listening to a Dean Kootnz novel on Audible. I kept seeing something that looked like a sparkling green light, dance around a plant I had sitting just outside the porch. After a short while it was so noticeable, I was compelled to find out what was creating this unusual green light.

I was surprised to find the plant full of these tiny creatures that look like an ordinary honey bee, but their was nothing ordinary about them. They were a brilliant sparkly green when touched by the sunlight. I took a ton of pictures, that got lost when my cell phone died. I was intrigued, because I had never heard of, nor had I seen green bees before. I was pleased to find information on these beautiful creatures while not native to the area, had come to call this area home.

They are called Emerald Bees, Green Orchid Bees, Orchid Bees or Euglossa dilemma.

All orchid bees are native to the New World tropics, from Mexico throughout Central and tropical South America. Specimens of one species of this group, Euglossa dilemma, commonly known as the green orchid bee, were collected in Broward County, Florida in 2003 by entomologists working with the USDA fruit fly monitoring program. This arrival was likely from a nest imported from Mexico concealed within a wooden structure such as a pallet. Originally considered to be Euglossa viridissima; Eltz et al. (2011) found the orchid bees in Florida to be Euglossa dilemma, a newly described cryptic sibling species of Euglossa viridissima

entnemdept.ufl.edu...

Distribution

Since this arrival, the green orchid bee has become well established in South Florida. Current reports of this species are mostly from Broward, Palm Beach and Dade Counties. However its future distribution has been predicted to include almost half of peninsular Florida. Following a line that runs from Tampa to West Palm Beach and south, the potential range extends tothe entire southern tip of the Florida Peninsula.

Description

Green orchid bees are a quite conspicuous and charismatic species. This is mostly due to their large size and bright metallic-green coloration (Fig.1). They are roughly the same size to slightly smaller than a honey bee, usually about 1.3 cm in length.

Nesting Behavior
Though closely related to highly social bees in the same family, orchid bees are primarily solitary, showing only primitively social characteristics such as occasionally sharing communal nesting locations.

I have fallen in love with these beautiful creatures. Watching them provides me with a sense of awe. They are beautiful and they provide for a bit of the surreal. I have been on ATS for eleven years without an avatar. These guys inspired me to create one.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

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Very cool Bee's. I've never seen one.

a reply to: FauxMulder

First time I saw them I really had no clue what I was looking at. They really looked like little mechanical creatures. I don't see them as often as I used to, but even the number of frogs that are usually about have decreased.

I have to believe that it is due to the crazy heat we have been having.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

OMG!! I've seen one of these - just this past spring!!

I'm in Central Florida and pretty familiar with the usual flora, fauna, and 'flyers', so when I saw this iridescent green (bee looking) insect, I thought "What the heck is that?"...

...and I've been meaning to do an internet search ever since..
and now I don't have to, LOL!!

This kind of serendipity is one of the things that make ATS such a great community - it's just breaking my heart to think it might 'go away'..

a reply to: lostgirl

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a group of them or they would still be mystery to me.

I would likely have ignored them if the brilliant green reflection from their bodies had not been so persistent. Then I had to get past the metallic look of them.

They are truly amazing to watch.

You will very likely see them again, because they have become common residents in South Florida. They will eventually make their way much further north.

Thanks so much for posting this! S&F. They do look beautiful. I enjoy seeing different types of bees. They work so hard and are so pretty, especially bumblebees. Earth needs its bees. Without them, we’re screwed.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

This is a wonderful thread! Those bees are so cute and a beautiful hue. There just really seems to be no end to the wonder one can find in nature.
Also thanks for the shout out and for the link; the two threads make great companions.

I've seen shiny green bees here in CO, but after reading the information here I looked it up and found out the ones I've seen are likely called "Metallic Green Bees" (not a very creative name imo, ).

www.applewoodseed.com...

Thanks for posting! The bees make a lovely avatar.

www.aussiebee.com.au...

originally posted by: TheSkunk
www.aussiebee.com.au...

Crits from down under always seem to be just a little bit bigger than your average critters. I hate to see what your mosquitoes look like.

from Florida seen them thought they were some kind of fly lol .
Do they make honey in large amounts like European bees ?
With the European bee problems it mite be a good idea to cultivate a stand in if the worst happens .

a reply to: midnightstar

No, but they are pollinators. They don't live in hives, they are social but solitary. Like me. I think of them as my spirit animal.

My brother's bees are doing fine. I do have a friend though that had a die off of his bees. He is rebuilding his hives and he got most of the bees from people that wanted them removed from their property.

So I just filmed one of these in Massachusetts. I have a great video. They must not be just in the southern states

a reply to: 5ofineed5aladder

I think they are spreading their wings.

There seems to be different varieties in different places.

They do grab your attention.