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I was taking pics of bees on my sunflowers today. One bee was trying to collect pollen when another bee, that appeared to be the same species, was trying to do something else. I'm not sure what I was seeing. The 1st bee was on the flower, the second bee slammed hard into the other. It was there for, maybe, 2 seconds and flew off. The first bee postured with it's rear in the air for 2-3 more seconds and flew off. I was so shocked, I took no pics.
I waited a couple of minutes and the bees began doing it again and I was able to get a few shots.
That’s interesting the only thing I can think of is that because honey bee have such poor vision and forage by color and smell, It doesn't see the other bee because it blends in with flower and because its smell the nectar it’s collected its keeps try to land on it as if it was the flower. Then realizes it not a flower. Anther thing is maybe it communicating with it, after all very little is know about the way they communicate. I would have to research this before I can really say . Nice picture you took.
Thank you. It knew the other bee was there because it followed the other bee around. Communicating would be the logical answer but saying what? I still find bees from time to time doing this. It's interesting.
What you can do is contact one of the colleges and see if there is a entomologist there and see what he/she know about this behavior. Then post the reply it would be interesting to know.
