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Project Noah Nature School
Exaerete kimseyae
This large metallic blue/green bee is about 5cm long. Colour is the same all over except the wings which are a deep brown and eyes which are black. The characteristic long tongue is red. Also known as orchid bees they are solitary in habit. There are about 200 described species in this sub family and this one is thought to be from the genus exaerete.
Found this individual feeding on purple flowers in a clearing next to the road in high amazonian forest.
The identification has come from a professional Peruvian entomologist but there appears to be no other information about this particular species available that I could find.
Spotted on Jun 22, 2017
Submitted on Aug 5, 2017
24 Comments
Thank you for your comment Liana, you are most welcome.
Wonderful spotting Rob! Fantastic pics...amazing colours. Congratulations on your SOTW! Thank you for sharing :)
Thank you Catie. Glad you enjoyed it.
Congrats on your bee Robert.
Thank you so much Daniele and PN rangers on this SOTW. Thank you also Rach, Mark, Felix, Leuba and Leanne for you comment and support. It is most appreciated.
Congratulations triggsturner. Gorgeous bee.
Congratulations to you & your bee on the SOTW !
Well deserved! Congrats, Rob.
Congrats again Rob. Great spotting.
A very well deserved SOTW. Not only beautiful but fascinating too.
Congratulations Robert, this beautiful orchid bee has been voted Spotting of the Week by the rangers team:
"This beautiful Orchid Bee (Exaerete kimseyae) has been voted Spotting of the Week! Exaerete is a genus in the New World tribe Euglossini, commonly known as orchid bees or Euglossine bees. Most of the tribe's species are solitary and have bright metallic colors. Male orchid bees are unique in their ability to collect and store volatile compounds from orchids. Learn more about orchid bees here: https://buff.ly/2vSRz1u
Exaerete kimseyae was only described in 2011: https://buff.ly/2vSJnOX "
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Twitter:
https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/8...
Thank you for the nomination Ashley. Honoured and appreciated.
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Thank you for the comment flowntheloop, much appreciated.
Gorgeous, triggs!
Thank you for the link Hema. It's amazing how far these guys travel given their size! Also amazing is that the males collect scent. I didn't know that was a thing until I started researching these incredible creatures. Thanks again. Robert.
Here is some info on orchid bees in general.Interesting read.
https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/or...
Thank you Daniele. I am only going on the ID supplied me but I am confident in the source. There were a number of different similar species at this site but this was by far the biggest. I didnt realize it was such a recent discovery. Thank you for the links.
Thank you Felix.
Beautiful spotting!
Thank you Brian and Leuba for your comments. This bee put me in mind of one of the kids "Transformer" models! I was absolutely fascinated with it.
You have some wonderful new spottings triggs!
It seems this species was only discovered recently (2011):
http://www.moure.cria.org.br/catalogue/c...
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdeta...
All other images available online seem to be pinned specimen so this is really fantastic!
Love the clarity !
Great spotting and series triggsturner!!