Western Sweat Bee (Nomia melanderi) | 10% Beneficiary to shy-fox

Right before dark, the rain already stopped, I managed to make a short trip to the hill where I could probably find some fascinating subjects to shot. I made a stop at any potential spot, but I got nothing attracted my attention. Then, I decided to move to another spot thru the narrow path that led me to the shady bush. There, on the twigs, I spotted some western sweat that was nicely perching, but when I approached, they hurriedly took off. Luckily, I know a little bit about their behaviors that at any time they would come back. I waited for some minutes while my eyes stuck on the twig. Hooray...! One of them started fluttering over the twig and made a stop.

Seeing that, I did not waste time, and I was quite ready to hunt it down. At first, it still made a lot of moves, flying over and stopping by. Finally, it totally stopped there. Known as western sweat bee (Nomia melanderi), a species of bee that is slightly smaller than a honey bee and has thin, yellow, or green iridescent bands on its abdomen. It is often pointed out as "alkani bees" and gets that name because they nest in the alkaline soil of the desert regions. Western sweat bee stays under the family of Halictidae, in the order Hymenoptera.

As with the Eastern variety, they only sting when swatted or startled. This particular bee is vital for the pollination of alfalfa fields.source

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Camera	Smartphone Xiaomi
Category	Insect Photography
Lens	Extreme Lensbong Macro/Modified Macro lens