Male Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) bee in flight, feeding on lungwort flowers
A very different looking bee from the female, and it was fascinating to watch the behaviour. The females would happily go about their business, pausing frustratingly briefly on each flower, and the males would follow them around keeping their distance and occassionally launching themselves at the females for an even briefer encounter. They occassionally had aerial battles with other males, and even less often would actually feed gave me a chance to try and catch some shots of these beutiful insects.
Size: 4052px × 2533px
Photo credit: © Mark Horton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: anthophora, bee, colourful, dimporphism, feeding, flight, flower, flying, footed, hairy, hymenoptera, insect, invertebrate, lungwort, macro, male, nectaring, plumipes, pollen, pulmonaria, saccharata, sexual, spring, wildlife, wings
