I'm not sure if this is a bee butt or not, but it does appear to have pollen coated rear legs
I'm not sure if this is a bee butt or not, but it does appear to have pollen coated rear legs
The world of bee look alike is big! This seems to be a pollinator, and has a decent amount of pollen on its hind legs. It does have an ant body type, but also appears to have wings.
Bee?
Hover fly?
Ant?
Hybrid?
Something else?
Looks to me like a wasp or a stingless bee.
Yup that looks like a bee :)
Possibly a variety of furrow bee, or maybe a mini-miner bee - I’ve had furrow bees all over my geraniums this summer. They are about the size of a cooked grain of rice. Looks like a female gathering pollen from your hollyhock - they stick the pollen onto the underside of the abdomen as well as onto the rear pair of legs. Pretty cool! The males are longer and thinner, and depending on the variety could have impressively long antenna.
Very cool, thanks for the information! Taking up close photos of bees this summer has really opened my eyes to the amount of verity of bees that we have around here. I've also been alerted to the quantity of bee impersonators out there, so every time I find something new I have to ask myself, "is this really a bee?". I hope to post more of these critters over the next week or so.