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Greetings Mr. and Mrs. insect aficianado, and anyone else who gives a rat's ruddy red patoot !
Earlier today, as I was puttering about outside my humble abode, I happened to notice a bee which had come to rest on my driveway. A bumble bee, to judge by it's fuzzy yelow & black color scheme - thus:
Curious, I strolled over to see what it was up to, and beheld it engaged in a peculiar behavior.
It was rubbing or "scratching" repeatedly at it's abodmen - especially the underside - with it's rear legs, occasionally joining in with it's middle pair. It reminded me of a dog scratching a persistent itch with it's hind leg. After a short while, the bee began doing the same thing to the dorsal side of its thorax & head with its forelegs.
In between bouts of this "scratching", or whatever. it would crawl about an beat its wings as though endeavoring to take flight, fail to do so, and go back to "scratching".
After watching it for 5 minutes or so, I meandered off to do this & that, and when I returned to take another look at it, it seemed to have died. When I blew a puff of air at it, however, it seemed to revive - only to return to the weird little routine of rubbing at it's body and then seeming to try to fly off. Eventually, it wandered off into the lawn and I presume it eventually expired.
I'm wondering if anyone knows what might have been the matter with it.
Greetings Mr. and Mrs. insect aficianado, and anyone else who gives a rat's ruddy red patoot !
Earlier today, as I was puttering about outside my humble abode, I happened to notice a bee which had come to rest on my driveway. A bumble bee, to judge by it's fuzzy yelow & black color scheme - thus:
Curious, I strolled over to see what it was up to, and beheld it engaged in a peculiar behavior.
It was rubbing or "scratching" repeatedly at it's abodmen - especially the underside - with it's rear legs, occasionally joining in with it's middle pair. It reminded me of a dog scratching a persistent itch with it's hind leg. After a short while, the bee began doing the same thing to the dorsal side of its thorax & head with its forelegs.
In between bouts of this "scratching", or whatever. it would crawl about an beat its wings as though endeavoring to take flight, fail to do so, and go back to "scratching".
After watching it for 5 minutes or so, I meandered off to do this & that, and when I returned to take another look at it, it seemed to have died. When I blew a puff of air at it, however, it seemed to revive - only to return to the weird little routine of rubbing at it's body and then seeming to try to fly off. Eventually, it wandered off into the lawn and I presume it eventually expired.
I'm wondering if anyone knows what might have been the matter with it.