Andrena flavipes, f, right, Nesvady, Slovakia
It is spring and the Andrena are flying. As far as I know the 1500+ species in this group all nest in the ground and none of the females can sting you if you pick them up (or is that only American Andrena? Hmmm, that statement seems a bit imperial. I should rather say "or is that only bees of the genus Andrena that occur in continental North America." Clearly, despite its wrongness, there is less typing associated with imperialism). Any way here is a lovely Andrena from Slovakia (A. flavipes) (it probably doesn't sting either, but maybe European Andrena sting...?) collected by Peter Šima along the levee of the Nitra River. Note, however this is not a spring Andrena, but one of the members of Andrena world wide that can be found out and about in the Fall. However, Andrena are far more common in the spring. This post is getting aimless and I am going to stop here before I start telling you stories about the wasp nest boxes I have made over the past 2 days. Photo by Cole Cheng. Id by Jakob Straka.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr