Turns Out, There’s A Bee Species That Sleep In Flowers And It’s As Cute As It Sounds
We need bees. They’re the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. In fact, it is estimated that one-third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees. But as much as we are used to seeing them buzzing with work, they need their beauty sleep as well. Recently, wildlife photographer Joe Neely captured two bees snuggling in a flower, and the adorable pictures show a beautiful side of them we rarely witness.
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“The story behind these photos [begins when] me and my fiancé Niccole went out to find poppy flowers,” Neely told Bored Panda. “On the way back we saw this patch of pink flowers just off the highway, so we stopped to take some photos.”
“Niccole was shooting this orange Globe Mallow plant that was hidden inside all of these pink flowers, and she heard the bees buzzing about,” the 38-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, said. “Then she notices that some of the flowers had bees in them, but they were not moving.”
“I came over and studied 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.”
“Well, I never knew that bees slept in flowers but as it turns out this type of bees (Diadasia diminuta) sleep in the orange flowers called Globe Mallows.” The Diadasia diminuta – or simply the globe mallow bee – collects pollen from its favorite food plant, Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea). According to Forest Service at the United States Department of Agriculture, their nests are commonly found in partially compacted soil along the margins of dirt roads in the western United States. The globe mallow bees play a major role in the flower’s reproduction. “The bees become covered with pollen visiting the flowers [and] most of this pollen is groomed into the pollen basket on the hind legs and taken back to the nest,” the organization writes on its website. “However, some remains on the body and is deposited on the stigma of each of the next few globe mallow flowers visited. Thus, Diadasia bee population contributes greatly to Globe Mallow reproduction.
When it comes to bees sleeping, there are a few interesting details. “They don’t have eyelids, so you can’t just look for bees with their eyes closed,” Brandon Hopkins, a bee researcher at Washington State University, said. “By carefully watching bees, scientists have found that Honey bees stop moving their antenna and in some cases fall over sideways.” The nuances of exactly how and where a bee sleeps depend on where it lives. After all, there are more than 20,000 known types of bees living on our planet. Honey bees, for example, work day and night and take shifts sleeping inside the hive. Their sleep patterns change as they grow up. Younger bees sleep less, but older bees catch between 30 minutes and an hour and a half each night, taking little naps of about 15 to 30 seconds at a time.
But these two flying insects cuddled together in flower and made the perfect composition, presenting Joe with what became his winning shot for the day. “I used a Nikon d750 and a 150mm macro lens along with an R1C1 Nikon macro flash,” he revealed. The photographer said he approaches bee photography the same way he approaches any other kind of wildlife photography, from rattlesnakes to bison.
“I keep a respectable distance and don’t do anything that would change the subject’s behavior or distort the beautiful nature. How macro photography is different is that your depth of field is very small or shallow because you are very close to something so tiny. So because of this, I like to shoot with an aperture around f16 to f20, to get as much in focus as possible. This usually means there will be a need to introduce artificial lighting, like a flash. Now that may sound annoying, but the best part about using a flash is that you don’t have to depend on a fast shutter speed for sharp images. Instead, you are freezing all movement (yours and the subjects) with the speed of light.”
People were amazed by the breathtaking shot
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Share on FacebookThe detail in the final close-up is amazing. Great shot of sweet little fuzzies. Actually have all their little legs cuddling.
Ikr?? And it also makes us all think deeply about the existence of bees O.o
Load More Replies...Aw, really? I love bees. Of all kinds. My favorites are the bumblies. I've caught them sleeping in flowers before. I think it is not an unusual occurence.
Load More Replies...I wanna cuddle these guys so bad! I'm usually afraid of bees, but this makes me want to go in a field full of them and give them mini little hugs!
There's really nothing to be afraid of! They just want to find flowers. :)
Load More Replies...Reminds me of the poppy scene out of the Wizard of Oz...
Load More Replies...I hope this inspires at least a few people to do more to SAVE BEES!
OMG! This is the cutest thing ever! Awwww..sweet dreams little bees :)
The 3rd bee on the stem is thinking the same thing...
Load More Replies...Super cool. I found a bee once sleeping on a leaf. LS-BeeAtRe...2aed8c.jpg
Not to be snarky or anything, but literally thousands of bee species sleep on—or inside—flowers. Males especially are most likely to be found sleeping in their preferred flower species because they don’t create nests like the females, but a female will also sleep on on a flower if she couldn’t make it back to her nest before dark. The males of some bee species will even sleep together in huge aggregations on a single flower, like a bee slumber party, and it’s almost ridiculously cute.
This. I've been watching the different bumbblebees we have in Finland sleeping in wild roses and calendulas since I was a kid.
Load More Replies...Bees have always been my favorite bugs and this only makes them better.
Stop using insecticides and pesticides! They should be banned! Yes, there would be a few worms and some fruits will be unusable, but the price of using these toxins is just too big. It's not only killing bees it's killing every living creature, and humans who consume it. Protect the bees!
Ahhh, cuddled in a flower, covered in pollen. My allergies would set my head on fire for this.
Warms my heart to see them sleeping in that flower. I 💓 bees, especially Bumbles.
I recently found solitary leafcutter bees in my garden, so I started making sure they had water, because in Arizona it can be difficult to find. They learned to expect me, and started showing up in the morning to wait for me to come out. I don’t even know how many hours I’ve spent watching them - mesmerized by their eccentricities, but it’s a lot more than you think, lol. It’s been a year, my garden is healthier than ever, and my 10 little bees are at least 200 now. I feed them, built them a house, water them. Today it’s raining & the bees usually go off & do bee stuff when it’s dark, but there was one little lonely bee who was all wet, so I let her crawl onto my hand…yeah, I’m that lunatic….anyway, it’s been more than an hour and I think she’s asleep. So here I am trying to figure out how bees sleep. Yup. She’s definitely asleep 😂 I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do
Found a very tiny bee sleeping in a miniature rose blossom this morning.
I love this, and bees, so much. I saw my first bumble of the season a couple days ago, stuck in our carport window. Just as I was about to help it, it got itself turned around, and flew by me. I was so happy when it buzzed by me.
Aww these super cute bees. Kudos to the photographer for the incredible job. What a photography. This is magnifying the beauty of flower.
I love bees! I have huge oregano and basil bushes in my herb garden; the bees love to hang out and do whatever they need to. Sometimes visitors get 'bugged' (sorry), but I think they are amazing.
I adore bees, this is a classic picture. My mum is from Europe where they have bumble bees and we live in Australia and she calls our bees "wasps"..LOL..when I finally got to see one in the flesh I was buzzed out, they look like they are wearing fuzzy jumpers and buzz about so slowly like they are happy. I ran through several gardens like idiot following it to several peoples chagrin
I can't get enough of the beautiful aspects of Nature and this macro photo of the two little bees takes my breath away with emotion!
You sure they aren't just getting high from the opiates present in Poppies?
I’m going to guess that they metabolize the opiates differently from how we do.
Load More Replies...omg u learn sumthin new every day soo cute,im afraid of every bee ,but this is beautiful
Adorable. I never thought I'd say this about bees, but adorable.
Great photos! I have never seen anything like this, so this was a first for me. And of course they are adorable. God sure knew what he was doing when he made these creatures.
Very sweet. The bees probably get intoxicated with the pollen - like cats with catnip.
Awwww How Sweet is this ‼️ Bees Cuddling in their sleep ❣️I wonder if They Snore to ❓🤔💭 Hmm 😂 Hehehe 🐝💤🐝
Awwww How Sweet is this? Bees cuddling in their sleep ‼️ 🤗 I wonder if They snore? 🤔 💭 Hmm 🐝💤🐝
FWUFFLY BUZZIES!!! i think i fell in love 1 like= 1 kiss being delivered to them by a bumblebee. ^w^
The detail in the final close-up is amazing. Great shot of sweet little fuzzies. Actually have all their little legs cuddling.
Ikr?? And it also makes us all think deeply about the existence of bees O.o
Load More Replies...Aw, really? I love bees. Of all kinds. My favorites are the bumblies. I've caught them sleeping in flowers before. I think it is not an unusual occurence.
Load More Replies...I wanna cuddle these guys so bad! I'm usually afraid of bees, but this makes me want to go in a field full of them and give them mini little hugs!
There's really nothing to be afraid of! They just want to find flowers. :)
Load More Replies...Reminds me of the poppy scene out of the Wizard of Oz...
Load More Replies...I hope this inspires at least a few people to do more to SAVE BEES!
OMG! This is the cutest thing ever! Awwww..sweet dreams little bees :)
The 3rd bee on the stem is thinking the same thing...
Load More Replies...Super cool. I found a bee once sleeping on a leaf. LS-BeeAtRe...2aed8c.jpg
Not to be snarky or anything, but literally thousands of bee species sleep on—or inside—flowers. Males especially are most likely to be found sleeping in their preferred flower species because they don’t create nests like the females, but a female will also sleep on on a flower if she couldn’t make it back to her nest before dark. The males of some bee species will even sleep together in huge aggregations on a single flower, like a bee slumber party, and it’s almost ridiculously cute.
This. I've been watching the different bumbblebees we have in Finland sleeping in wild roses and calendulas since I was a kid.
Load More Replies...Bees have always been my favorite bugs and this only makes them better.
Stop using insecticides and pesticides! They should be banned! Yes, there would be a few worms and some fruits will be unusable, but the price of using these toxins is just too big. It's not only killing bees it's killing every living creature, and humans who consume it. Protect the bees!
Ahhh, cuddled in a flower, covered in pollen. My allergies would set my head on fire for this.
Warms my heart to see them sleeping in that flower. I 💓 bees, especially Bumbles.
I recently found solitary leafcutter bees in my garden, so I started making sure they had water, because in Arizona it can be difficult to find. They learned to expect me, and started showing up in the morning to wait for me to come out. I don’t even know how many hours I’ve spent watching them - mesmerized by their eccentricities, but it’s a lot more than you think, lol. It’s been a year, my garden is healthier than ever, and my 10 little bees are at least 200 now. I feed them, built them a house, water them. Today it’s raining & the bees usually go off & do bee stuff when it’s dark, but there was one little lonely bee who was all wet, so I let her crawl onto my hand…yeah, I’m that lunatic….anyway, it’s been more than an hour and I think she’s asleep. So here I am trying to figure out how bees sleep. Yup. She’s definitely asleep 😂 I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do
Found a very tiny bee sleeping in a miniature rose blossom this morning.
I love this, and bees, so much. I saw my first bumble of the season a couple days ago, stuck in our carport window. Just as I was about to help it, it got itself turned around, and flew by me. I was so happy when it buzzed by me.
Aww these super cute bees. Kudos to the photographer for the incredible job. What a photography. This is magnifying the beauty of flower.
I love bees! I have huge oregano and basil bushes in my herb garden; the bees love to hang out and do whatever they need to. Sometimes visitors get 'bugged' (sorry), but I think they are amazing.
I adore bees, this is a classic picture. My mum is from Europe where they have bumble bees and we live in Australia and she calls our bees "wasps"..LOL..when I finally got to see one in the flesh I was buzzed out, they look like they are wearing fuzzy jumpers and buzz about so slowly like they are happy. I ran through several gardens like idiot following it to several peoples chagrin
I can't get enough of the beautiful aspects of Nature and this macro photo of the two little bees takes my breath away with emotion!
You sure they aren't just getting high from the opiates present in Poppies?
I’m going to guess that they metabolize the opiates differently from how we do.
Load More Replies...omg u learn sumthin new every day soo cute,im afraid of every bee ,but this is beautiful
Adorable. I never thought I'd say this about bees, but adorable.
Great photos! I have never seen anything like this, so this was a first for me. And of course they are adorable. God sure knew what he was doing when he made these creatures.
Very sweet. The bees probably get intoxicated with the pollen - like cats with catnip.
Awwww How Sweet is this ‼️ Bees Cuddling in their sleep ❣️I wonder if They Snore to ❓🤔💭 Hmm 😂 Hehehe 🐝💤🐝
Awwww How Sweet is this? Bees cuddling in their sleep ‼️ 🤗 I wonder if They snore? 🤔 💭 Hmm 🐝💤🐝
FWUFFLY BUZZIES!!! i think i fell in love 1 like= 1 kiss being delivered to them by a bumblebee. ^w^
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