Before starting work today my cat made me go outside and watch while she does her usual "scratch the crap out of the Jasmine bush" business. I took the opportunity to check out how the flowering Japonica was doing.
It had LOADS of bees on it. Including one enormous Buff Tailed Bumblebee the size of my thumb (I'm thinking a queen) busying itself amongst the flowers.
Above this there was a mini drama going on: There was an almost white coloured bee hovering stationary in front of one of the other groups of flowers. It was generating so much downwash that the leaves beneath it were being blown around, just like being close to a helicopter. Very cool!
Watching it, it seemed to be looking for something & then I spotted there was a similarly sized bee on the other side of that bunch of flowers collecting nectar. This one looked similar, but was much darker.
The lighter bee started circling sideways, like a bloody helicopter, rotating around the flowers and then dive bombed the other bee! They then both flew off, the lighter bee in pursuit! A few seconds later, the dark bee came back, going to the same bit only to be followed by the other one and chased off again. This kept happening.
Male bee chasing off competition / looking for mates?
It was cool!
delanthear