Ileana Calotescu
It has not happened to me many times to shoot such scenes. Maybe two more times. That was the hardest to bear and to look at. I have not even noticed from the beginning what’s going on. I saw the bee with pollen bags and I came closer to take a picture. He tried to fly but failed. It seemed a little strange to me because I knew a bee could carry a weight equal to 3/4 of her weight and the bags did not look so heavy. I noticed the reason only after looking through the camera lens. The photo below shows a crab spider attacking a honeybee. This horrible creature, the Crab spider hiden on flower, has caught the bee with its front legs and injected it with venom that causes paralysis. I do not know why, but it was the most painful scene I’ve ever seen. Bee tried to defend but failed. I just hope she has managed to inject the spider too, because I noticed she had the needle removed.
I’m sharing this post with Macro Monday Challenge
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Question of
Did you know that spiders eat bees?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Can you see the spider in this photo?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you think the bee managed to escape?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you think the bee managed to inject venom into the spider?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Unfortunately the bee could not be saved
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Yes
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No
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Pradator si prada, nimic mai mult, nimic mai putin. O parte esentiala a naturii, brutala, dar esentiala.
Excelente fotografii!
Love those pictures, They are stunning.
Thank you, Dawn! They are not my best photos but have a lot of emotion stored in them!
and all that good pollen never made it back to the hive
Unfortunately, the work of this bee was in vain!?
a bee’s life isn’t for the faint of heart
This is an impressive and emotional photos series because of your narrative. We can also be sad when watching videos of how lions hunt deer, or crocodiles prey on buffalo, or whatever… and it’s even sadder to see humans eat other humans in various ways.
I can hardly look at such scenes, and this attack seemed to me a mischievous one. The fact that the bee was carrying polen bags meant she had worked all day, she was tired and could not defend. That’s why I was more affected than I should have been.
I can really understand what you feel.
Ahh… but we need more bees to help us survive …
nooo!! Stupid spider!!!
A much greater danger to bees is insecticides used extensively in agriculture. That should worry more!
That’s true … here she faces her natural predator and there, faces humans and chemicals …
There are quite some bee nests in where my father used to work (a golf course) but then they were removed one by one due to complains … The bees hardly attacked anyone (except for once) but still they were removed
Beautiful theme and a beautiful image of the bee????????
Nature has its not so good side, just like life does. I have never witnessed this before. So sad but it is what happens in the food chain. Great photos and narrative.
I know all this. However, it was hard to see!