Three tiny bees, same specie?

[bonitin]

Hi,

I have two tiny bees from different dates found in my garden, they look the same but they might not be!

The first one was on 23rd July 2008 feeding on a Geranium flower, I suppose all that yellow on its hind legs must be pollen, so not a cuckoo bee..









The second one visited my garden on the 13rd May 2008 feeding on Ranunculus acris 'Sulphureum'.

[bonitin]

I said three tiny bees in the heading but then it has to be two because I just noticed that the third one doesn't has any pollen, might be a cuckoo bee I'll post in another thread..

[Jason Green]

I take it these too are from Belgium? (I suppose I should take it they are, by default...)

[bonitin]

Oh sorry Jason, forgot to mention!
Yes, they're Belgians

My garden is in Gent.

[eucera]

All pics of female Lasioglossum sp. Species identification not possible I'm afraid

Actually, these are medium-sized by the standards of this genus!!

[JRsbugs]

Nice shots bonitin! I thought they were quite large too, or else you got very close to be able to get these which isn't usually the case as they do move quickly! Pics always give the impression these bees are posing for us, lol, far from the truth. I was about to rush and and get myself a 12MP Canon!

Janet

[bonitin]

Thanks Stuart! I have at least the genus now

Thank you Janet!

Well I thought they were quite small in relation to the flower, the flowers of Ranunculus acris are not larger than 1,5cm diameter, so I guess the bee must have been about 6-7 mm..
But its true I have pictures of bees even smaller than that..

Yes, I really love my camera, its macro-modus is very powerful, I can still focus at a distance of 1cm to the object.
And when I'm lucky these buzzy bees sometimes are so absorbed in what they're doing they don't notice me approaching and with the help of a fast shutterspeed to compensate their constant moving about I can get a couple or more of reasonable shots from a series.

There's a newer version ;
Canon Powershot 10 with 14 Mp!! (=greedy)