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Nomada sp. Resting

This little bee was acting really odd. It was walking around on blades of grass quite docile and then latched itself onto this blade you see by locking on with its jaws. We thought it had been parasitized because it was not letting go for anything and then folded its legs up.

I took some photos with the blade bent over a leaf cause the wind was swinging it all over. I wasn't going to post these, just was going to get an ID.

While looking around for the ID, I came across someones photo and one of the comments on it was 'lucky you, wish I could find one with locked jaw', so this got me thinking...why would you want to do that, what is this behavior.

So beginning my top notch detective work with a google search of 'Nomada locked jaw', I was rewarded with results that told me this bee is trying to sleep. I found this very interesting, and had never heard of such, maybe lots of insects do similar but we had never seen it.

I was unable to get an exact ID also, Bwars didn't have an exact match, so if anyone has an idea on that too, I'd appreciate it.
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9 comments

C.Rayz said:

They are confusing! I was doing all right until I started looking for this one..lol. This guy started this in the evening I'd say about 5-6pmish, was very cool to see.
11 years ago

Pam J said:

That is fascinating !!

I also love the tryptic presentation.
11 years ago

Imogen said:

Thanks for adding this to the group, it is very interesting. The Australian Blue Banded bee is also known to roost on twigs or blades of grass for a sleep.
11 years ago

Wimm/Vic said:

Imogen beat me to the punch. I have the Blue-banded here - but do you think I can find it kipping? Nope! Worse, they are known to congregate together to roost - so you would think they should be fairly easy to detect. :-)
11 years ago

C.Rayz said:

Appreciate all the comments! I would love to find a clump of these resting, but that would be my luck as well if these did that, to walk right on by...lol
11 years ago

Imogen said:

Back for the umpteenth look. I think you should be proud of what you have achieved with these images.
11 years ago

C.Rayz said:

Lol, thank you Imogen :)
11 years ago

Imogen replied to C.Rayz:

No kidding - I mean it. Sometimes the best capture is an unexpected one. I captured an amazing pic today of a bird taking its first flight out of the nest - with the nearest camera to hand, a point and shoot camera on the wrong settings.
11 years ago

C.Rayz said:

Can't disagree with that, those are the memories too :)
11 years ago