Description
A female green sweat bee at Oaks Bottom, photographed on an overcast afternoon.
The weather is the reason this photograph exists. It took five sessions of roughly three hours each to get one of these that I was willing to keep, and what finally worked was cloud — because a metallic bee is a specular surface, and in bright sun the green simply blows out to white.
But the part worth knowing about her is underground. Agapostemon nest in bare soil, and they often nest communally — several females sharing one burrow entrance, then each digging and provisioning her own cells off the shared tunnel. No queen, no workers, no shared labour. An apartment building rather than a colony.
It also means she needs bare ground to exist at all. A garden mulched wall to wall, however beautiful, has nowhere for her to live. Leaving one unplanted, uncovered patch of dirt in a sunny corner is a small thing that does more for native bees than almost anything else you can do.
What you will receive: a high-resolution JPEG, 5464 x 3072 pixels — large enough to print at full photo quality up to about 18 × 10 inches at 300 DPI. Delivered as an instant download the moment your order is complete.
License: Personal use only. Print it for your own home, use it as a wallpaper or screen background, enjoy it yourself. Not licensed for commercial use, resale, redistribution, or AI training. © Jonathan Swanson / JonSwan Productions. All rights reserved.
