CLOSED: Cute Bee. Not Shy. Lands on your hand.

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 21, 2010

I've noticed this little fella for years now and he's a cute one. Maybe 6-8 mm long. His abdomen is flattened. He hovers somewhat like a dragonfly or hummingbird. And most peculiarly, he doesn't seem to distinguish between your hand and another object to take a break on. I noticed this one day and sometime later I was sitting with friends on their back deck and saw this guy flitting around the table. I said, "hey, watch this..." held out my hand and he zoomed right over and sat on it. It couldn't have been more perfect. Like a magic trick. Like I had a pet bee.

What's his name?


This message was edited Jul 21, 2010 1:22 PM

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svejkovat Grand Haven, MI Jul 21, 2010

This kind of stuff is really making me wish I'd paid closer attn to the macro capability of cameras before buying. This Samsung SL420 is a brilliant little camera for about 100 dollars. The detail and color is far more than I'd even hoped for over my six year old pentax 1.5 megapixel budget class digital. But it's limited to about 12cm (in my experience) macro shots. After some websearch, Canon compacts are considered the best bet here with 2cm possible.

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melody Benton, KY(Zone 7a) Jul 21, 2010

It is a hoverfly.

I'm not sure which one, but this one is similar.

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Jul 21, 2010

Hover flies (also known as flower flies or drone flies) are in the family Syrphidae. This is a huge family with thousands of species; to get some idea as to their variety, see http://tinyurl.com/29trhhd (you'll need to click on the subfamily links). BTW, some Nikon Coolpix cameras also do a very good job of close focusing (well under an inch); you need to check the specs on individual models.

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hemlady Melvindale, MI(Zone 5a) Jul 21, 2010

I always wondered what those were. I thought they were bees too. We used to call them sweat bees when I was a kid.

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