Beach Pea Bees

 

 

Thanks to the Comox Valley Art Gallery, I am currently the artist in residence at the cottage in McLoughlin Gardens near Merville, BC. I am doing a deep dive into local keystone plants for native bees using photography, writing and creating botanical cyanotypes. I'm also working on costumes inspired by insects such as leaf miners, caddis flies, lacewing larvae and bagworm moth caterpillars. Finally, as a board member of the BC Native Bee Society, I am networking with other artists, naturalists and scientists who live in the area in order to create future events merging art, science, and the conservation and celebration of local native bees. My longtime dear friend and collaborator Lois Klassen is in the Comox Valley Artist residence in Courtenay and we are supporting each other with food, conversation, feedback, and inspiration. We are also here to see the show in the gallery with wonderful art by our colleagues from Winnipeg. I am also grateful by hcma in Victoria for financial support for this project as part of my residency with them.

Every day I have here at the cottage I have been searching the beach peas for bees.

Most times I see Bombus flavifrons sucking back that nectar. She's got a long face, but she still goes face deep into each flower.

You can see she's got a bit of pollen on her back legs.

This shot shows her lovely colour morph. The B. flavifrons I see on the Japanese spirea here have a darker colour pattern on the lower part of their abdomen.

So cute to see them grooming as they drink.

You can see little holes in the petals made by the tarsal claws as she clings to the flowers.

I love how the veins in her wings echo the veins in the petals. There are three other key plants here that Bombus flavifrons are foraging in here: Japanese spirea, oceanspray, and snowberry. 

I thought the giant vetch had finished blooming, but found one patch that was still juicy and a B. flavifrons was face deep in these flowers too.

Look how she clings to the flowers with her little tarsal claws!

Love how the colour of her pollen load matches the petals. After finishing with all the giant vetch, she switched to the beach pea flowers nearby.