Thank you, everyone. The penstemon have been a real education this summer. I love photographing the critters that visit my flowers, most are too fast for me to get a clear picture in focus. The surprising thing I discovered and later confirmed online is that carpenter bees cannot fit into the throat of the foxglove, so they go to the back of the flower on the outside and bite through the flower and go straight to the nectary to take the nectar! So they don't help in pollination for this plant at all. The shocker is that honey bees have learned to take advantage of this. I watched them on my black and blue salvia. After the carpenter bee bit the holes the honey bees became secondary nectar robbers and used the holes made by the carpenter bees! They also totally skipped any pollination process on that plant, the little thieves! To think I used to defend carpenter bees!
I'm ashamed of honey bees, to be in cahoots with the likes of them. Is there no honor in the bee world?
with Valerie! Absolutely love bee photos! Great shot!!
