This flower is not big enough for the both of us!

[Duke of York]

I saw an interesting sight this evening with a bee and a spotted burnet both sharing a flower.



For a while both seemed happy to keep to their own side of the flower until the bee decided he wanted to see if the burnet's side was better



It obviously was for the next thing I saw the bee nudged the burnet slightly and it fell off leaving the bee master of the flower



PS Can anybody itentify the bee as I like this shot so I may move it to the gallery

DoY

[aeshna5]

Looks like Bombus lapidarius with the 6-spot Burnet Moth. There isn't a pollen basket on the bee so isn't a worker, too small for a queen , so is probably a male, which normally has a yellow band on the thorax, though not too obvious here (though sometimes I believe it can be missing!). The cukoo that uses this species, B. rupestris has dark wings + is less hairy, so can't be this species.

[mrs fish]

Lovely pics

[Duke of York]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Looks like Bombus lapidarius with the 6-spot Burnet Moth. There isn't a pollen basket on the bee so isn't a worker, too small for a queen , so is probably a male, which normally has a yellow band on the thorax, though not too obvious here (though sometimes I believe it can be missing!). The cukoo that uses this species, B. rupestris has dark wings + is less hairy, so can't be this species.

Thanks for the help with the bee Id although I think the Burnet Moth isn't a 6-spot but a narrow-bordered 5-spot as it only has 5 spots per wing

[Duke of York]

Originally Posted by mrs fish

Lovely pics

Thanks for the comment Mrs Fish, most appreciated.

DoY

[GuyF]

Interesting set of shots, I had the same today but it was a Burnet against a Common Blue, and the Burnet won this time!
I agree with Aeshna that it's a 6-spot, I think they count the large dot at the front as 2 because there's a vein down the middle!
Guy

[Duke of York]

Actually on a closer inspection Guy I do agree it is a 6 spotted not a 5

The thing that confused me was I found this one a few weeks ago



And this is a narrow-bordered 5-spot so I just assumed the latest one was the same

Typical insects always trying to confuse you

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by Duke of York

Actually on a closer inspection Guy I do agree it is a 6 spotted not a 5

The thing that confused me was I found this one a few weeks ago



And this is a narrow-bordered 5-spot so I just assumed the latest one was the same

Typical insects always trying to confuse you

Actually I think that's another point, Narrow-bordered 5-spots are on the wing a few weeks earlier. They're both spectacular moths.
Guy