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Here’s a bit of irony… Australia has some of the deadliest spiders and snakes in the world, but our native bee? Stingless. They are so non-threatening and docile there are even a couple of schools with hives of native bees (Tetragonula Carbonaria) for the students to study. To be honest, there are a variety of native bees, and not all of them are stingless, but the one in my photo is the one found in the Northern Territory, and definitely stingless.
Enlargement of 4mm Tragonia Carbonaria, native stingless bee
Murraya Paniculata in blossom
I have seen a few of them in my 30 years here, but never have I been fortunate enough to photograph one. They are TINY; about 4 or 5mm (1/4 inch). Since the rains a few weeks ago, we’ve had a burst of flowers on nearly every plant possible. Ask any of the hay fever sufferers in town!
Honey bee in Murraya
Flowers bring bees and since I’m a big fan of honey and the little workers that make it, I like to try and photograph them. As many of you know, my only camera is my iPhone, and getting close enough to photograph bees with an iPhone is… um…stupid… or at least living on the edge. But this morning as the early light was hitting the eucalyptus orbifolia that is just coming into blossom, I grabbed the phone and headed up the driveway for some adventure.
Honeybee and Native bee on same flower cluster
As I was photographing the stunning flowers I realised the bees were just as busy as…well… bees; and were hardly noticing me. I got close… real close. When I saw the honeybee had company, and it was a native bee, I was so excited I had to remind myself to breathe. Who wouldn’t love a little critter than makes honey, helps pollinate everything, and won’t sting you if you cuddle it??
-Ardys (aka ‘intrepid bee photographer’)
ardysez 
Love your efforts to photograph the bees with your phone…your pictures turned out great! 🙂
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Thank you. My phone camera continually surprises me!
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It’s funny Ardys, that the bee should not be threatened so it didn’t need to sting, and now because it doesn’t it can live longer. than one that does sting. Honey for longer eh.
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
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The amount of honey made by the native bees is very small, but it was enough for the Aboriginal people to use. Thanks for reading, David.
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Wow, what a lucky photographer you are! I was amazed at how tiny native bees are. I only saw them last year for the first time, an active hive in a hollow boab tree in WA. They say the aboriginals just reach into the hive and take some of the “sugar bag” no need to fear reprisal.
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Yes, I have read that about Aboriginals using the ‘sugar bag’ too. Yes, I am a lucky photographer to get this photo, it is one of my favourites I’ve ever taken.
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Amazing images. When I first moved to the inner city Sydney about 10 years ago I was amazed to see native bees – the G.O had to tell me what they were. Whenever I see them or the honey bees in the garden I get an uplift of joy. While we were away I was happily gardening and picking holy basil from the out of control bush – they love the blooms – among them. I felt honoured they grace our garden with their presence.
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I first saw the native bees in Darwin, nearly 30 years ago, or I would not have known what I was seeing the day I shot this. In all the years (22) we’ve lived in Alice this was the first time I had seen one here, and I’m so amazed the photos worked. About 15 years ago we were having terrible drought here and it all but decimated the honey bee population, so I am very happy to see bees in the garden, too, they tell me all is right with the world.
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I didn’t know that you have a bee with no sting, that is so wonderful! We get all sorts of bees cruising through and little hovering insects that look a bit bee like but have no sting. Not sure what they are called here, maybe they are called hoverflies or something like that. Very impressed by the beautiful iphoto bee and the wonderful light that you capture so well xx
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I LOVE the name ‘hoverflies’… my spell check has just now tried to make that into ‘overflies’ which is also an interesting name. Maybe we could discover something new and name it that!
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