The Black Vault

That Toronto Bee looks a little like this black bee I've been seeing around here since August 2007 when these pics were taken by me. I was trying to find out what kind and I still don't know, the are about as long as the honeybee but there bodies seem a hair bit wider sometimes. Its definately a bee and not a fly or hornet masquerading as one.

Another bee I haven't identified is this blue bellied grey variant that is honeybee sized and smaller, also photographed by me in August 2007

Wow those are great pictures!
The bees with the bit of blue, well I never thought bees could be that beautiful.
Those are cute ones.
Have you spent alot of time trying to find a possible species they could belong to?
The first bee pictures, the black ones, do like one of the new species found.
I guess he found 19 new species.
I haven't stayed up to date over the years on the honeybee CCD but I've
read articles from time to time.

I'm curious if the U.S. will put a ban on the imported bees from Australia,
just read an article on that the other day, they think the imported bees
are not helping so much as was thought. And earlier today I read an article
about a british beekeeper who has succeeded in creating a new strain of
honeybees, a new breed called the Swindon Honeybee that are resistant to the varroa mites, the bees groom one another.
Now they will be waiting to see how long this breed takes to more populate
throughout the country, I'd like to keep up to date on how they do on that.
If I come accross the article again or a follow up I'll post it in here.

As usual the Internet failed me back when I was looking for them, and library books did not help either because there generally aren't many with color pics of each type. A lot of what I looked at was saying the black one might be a baby bumblebee which is totally wrong because it completely lacks the bumbles anatomy, this black one is a honeybee (and there were more than one) I've little doubt of it but I'm not sure which kind not the wings are black too.

It isn't like this one in Costa Rica, less hair
http://travel.mongabay.com/costa_rica/i ... _4713.html
Nor is it Britain's Black Honeybee
http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 86781.html
Its not this bee either note the yellow dot on the forehead
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load ... 12571.html
Nor does it have the blue markings of this
http://0.tqn.com/w/experts/Entomology-S ... ck-bee.jpg
Nor is it a hairy big one like this (this looks carpenter or bumblish)
http://dicksandy.org/Favorites/Scenes%2 ... %20bee.jpg
And though these are called the German Black Bee or European black bee its not it either
http://www.treknature.com/gallery/photo179130.htm
So nope I don't know what it is.

No idea what the blue & grey one is either.

BTW Taking pictures of Bees, both those species were extremely camera shy unlike Carpenter bees and to a lesser extent honeybees. I usually get about 6 to 10 inches from a bee for photo with an auto focus digital camera. I have no fear of bees or hornets, As long as I don't bug them they don't sting me.

No it doesn't resemble those.
And I don't think it is the species newly found in toronto.
The wings are even more transparent in the other, with much more
fuzziness. The dark one you photographed has very little hair,
never seen a bee like it. How do you know that it isn't a hornet?

Partially behavoir, how they go after flowers in a certain way, but mostly bodybuild and the full pollen brushs on the hind legs, hornets are pretty hairless and don't have the brushes.

After just reviewing these two pictures I realized the blue is actually pollen on abdomen brushes.

I had suspected that, but at the same time, look at the bee with the yellow pollen, it looks a complete mess. Well what I mean is that its all over him. The blue, if its pollen, how is it in such order. Is it the color, that maybe you can't see the smaller pollens spread. In the other photograph it almost looked like part reflection. But if it is pollen, it must just be a much neater bee. hmm

The grey one most likely has tightly packed shorter hairs, not the tips of the plant and you'll see the same color, so its probably a finer pollen. The black one has long leg hairs creating the large cluster in addition there may a few hairs we cannot see further towards the head, he Italian & Caucasion Honeybees don't always get that messy.

Well the pictures are wonderful, you must have an entire collection?

"A recent study provides the first long-term evidence of a downward trend in pollination."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 231237.htm