Hymenoptera

It’s National Pollinator Week.

The membrane-winged insects, order Hymenoptera, encompass the bees, wasps, and ants (the queens and males of the ants have wings but shed them after mating). Unlike the flies, and there a number of flies who mimic bees, hymenoptera have four wings that merge together with a sort of natural velcro, so that it looks like they have two wings. These three species were pictured at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge recently.
Many people who complain about bee stings are probably stung by wasps, which are much more aggressive creatures. Wasps are generally identifiable by their lack of hair and wasp-waist. The bees above and below are clearly hairy and far from wasp-waisted. They are bumble bees, genus Bombus, gentle giants rarely known to sting. But boy, do they ravage flowers. Rumble! Above and below in the Rosa rugosa, which I noticed a ranger calling “salt spray rose.” We’ve always called them beach roses; they usually come pinkish red, but occasionally white.

And here in the Opuntia humifusa cactus flower, a magnificently metallic sweat bee, family Halictidae, frosted with pollen. (What, cactus growing wild in New York City? Get thee to the link in the previous sentence.)