If someone
had ever told me that I would go “awww” at photos of insects, I would have
called them crazy. But what about photos of fluffy, pollen-covered bees
sleeping inside of flowers? Well, I gotta admit that’s something else, and it’s
as cute as it sounds. Photographer Joe Neely recently captured two bees
sleeping in a flower, and it’s definitely not something you see every day. He
was kind enough to share his images with DIYP, so take a look and prepare to
get all mushy.
In an
interview with Bored Panda, Joe explained that he and his fiancée Niccole went
out to find some poppy flowers. A patch of pink flowers just off the highway
captured their attention, so they stopped to take some photos of those as well.
Among the pink flowers, there was a hidden orange globe mallow plant. Joe
explains that Niccole heard the bees buzzing, but then she noticed that some
flowers had bees inside – but they weren’t moving.
I would have
probably thought that they were dead or something like that, and I would have
worried and grown panicky. But Joe came closer and studied the bees’ behavior,
revealing something interesting:
“I came over
and study it for a while and more bees showed up. Soon, all the vacant flowers
were occupied and this one bee was left out.
She crawled over to this open flower and got inside with the other one.
I was watching as he stumbled around almost drunk-like and then got settled
in.”
The bees Joe
photographed belong to the species Diadasia diminuta and they sleep inside
globe mallow flowers. You can learn more about them on United States Department
of Agriculture’s website.
Honestly, I
had no idea how bees sleep, or if they sleep at all. I especially had no idea
that they can look this cute and cuddly even (although I still wouldn’t dare
cuddle one). An article on University Communications Network explains that bees
don’t have eyelids, so you won’t figure out that they’re sleeping by their eyes
being closed. Instead, honey bees stop moving their antennae and in some cases
fall over sideways, according to the article.
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