Home»Gallery»Jasper Ridge Galleries»A Day at a Time: Individual Visits»8/17/2016 Iridescent Carpenter Bee, Plants, and Birds from Escobar Gate

An iridescent green carpenter bee (?) on a tarweed blossom is the highlight of this bird transect trip for me. I saw a spider and moth as well. John Rawlings pointed out some rare or interesting plants. And of course, lovely vistas on this August bird transect out of Escobar Gate.

Thanks to Pierre Martineau, who writes: "I think you'd like to know that the "iridescent fly" (images 3-7...) is actually a bee; I believe it is a species of Ceratina, a genus of (cute) small carpenter bees."

And Pierre adds later:
"Bravo Dan for the "no halteres" comment! makes me feel quite proud of my student :-) Also, carefully looking at your pictures at the highest resolution might reveal one on which you would be able to tell (I was not) that there are in fact 2 wings folded on top of each other; this would rule out a fly.

"Another striking (yet more difficult to formalize precisely) bee character on your pictures are the 'elbowed', ant-like antennae. AFAIK, no fly has such antennal structure"