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Hi again :)

This beautiful bumblebee was photographed in southern Spain 20th of May.
I only see this species on these flowers and they are quite scarce compared to other species around.

Unfortunately he/she was caught by a crab spider just a little while after this photo was taken. Way of nature. Crab spiders are impressive hunters.

Regards,
Mats

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Hi Mats,

it's an Amegilla sp. (Antophoridae), a solitary bee, not Bombus.
Nice shot!

Marc

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Amegilla sp. are interesting in that they use buzz pollination (sonic vibration) to release the pollen. You can tell it's an Amegilla bee in the flower by the sound, even if you can't see it.

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Thank you.
Dissapointed myself at the photo quality. It's very low speed shot. Got several good shots at it's sad demise.

Looked so fat for being a bee.
Antophoridae, is that synonym for Apidae?

Graeme,
I remember the interesting sound it was making. Very beautiful and interesting bee.

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I don't think there is anything much left in Anthophoridae. They have all been moved to Apidae.

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Apoidea Anthophoridae Amegilla

Or Apidae Anthophorinae Amegilla

CamilleB)

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Or Apoidea, Apidae, Apinae, Anthophorini (along with the tribe Bombini in this subfamily), Amegilla; like in Michener's 'Bees of the World' - depends which Author you want to refer… (But I don't know the most accepted/most reasonable systematic at the moment.)
Anyway, everything above species-level is artificial (of course not the phylogenetic tree and therefor the monophyletic taxa, but the taxonomic categories you put them in/authors give them).

About the pic: I know these fights with exposure time and aperture (plus ISO) - it's hard to get those buggers focused on the chip while flying. But I like it anyway, some can see the dynamic ;-)

Marc

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Thanks Graeme and Marc

Camille, thing is I can't find any online database mentioning Anthophoridae in ID terms anymore. All mention to it is in that everything under it has been moved to Apidae.