Spiders and Bees

[scitch]

I played around with some macro lenses outside today. I was trying to get a good shot of a bee but never got one that I was satisfied with.

In the process, a funnel spider peeked out at me as well as the colorful spider below. So, I came out after dark and took some pictures of the funnel spider and another brown spider came to have his picture taken too.

Are any of these spiders dangerous in Southern California?

Colorful spider ~1 cm


Funnel Spider after dark ~3 cm


Brown unknown spider ~3 cm


Bees




Please help with ID and advice on improving the pictures next time.

Mike

[lauriek]

They look like honeybees to me scitch!

No idea on the spiders, where are you based?
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[scitch]

Thanks, Laurie. I'm in Southern California. If they're bees, they are very friendly bees. We harassed them for hours and they never got upset. I have one in the freezer, how can I tell for sure? I cannot see a stinger with my eyes, but I'll look under the microscope.

Mike

[scitch]

I think you're right, Laurie. I had read on wikipedia that the wings are the way to tell them apart. But I didn't get any good pictures of the veins in the wings. But I think that in this case, the eyes give it away.

No harm done this time.

Mike

[lauriek]

Count the wings - flies only have two wings (and two massively shortened wings called 'halteres' which act like gyroscopes) - bees, wasps et-al all have 4 wings - in fact all flying insects apart from the true flies (diptera) have four wings.

Having said that it can be hard to tell sometimes, these pics only appear to show two wings, but if you have a specimen, look for the halteres.. (Often times with bees/wasps etc the two wings actually link together with a thin line of velcro like stuff down the edge)

Search the site for halteres you'll find plenty of example pics
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[rjlittlefield]

In bees and wasps, the front and rear wings are usually hooked together so they look and act as a single unit. It can be hard to tell even after you've seen a bunch of them.

Presence of halteres would make the subjects flies. There's no question if you can see those.

Shape of the antennae is also a good clue. Hoverflies have short bulbous antennae with a sharp bristle near the end. Bees and wasps have elongated thick antennae with no bristles. Compare your bees in this thread with the hoverflies HERE.

Your first spider looks like a jumper, family Salticidae. I don't recall hearing of any concern about those. They're kind of fun to play tag with. The other two spiders I can't tell. Only a very few brown/gray spiders are nasty, but caution is warranted because even specialists cannot give a solid ID in most cases. Often only adult specimens can be reliably identified, and those often require microscopic examination of a few hard-to-reach body parts.

--Rik

[scitch]

Thanks both of you. I looked at it under the microscope and . . . four wings, no halteres. I also do not see a stinger. I know that with carpenter bees, the female has a stinger and the male does not. Is that the case with these or is it just difficult to see the stinger while it's still in the bee?
I think that the halteres are an amazing feat of evolution.

Mike

[Harold Gough]

The antennae are the best character for separation. However, in addition, honey bees and true bumble bees, but not cuckoo bees, have the broadened segment (tibia) on each hind leg which is bordered by numerous long hairs, forming the "pollen basket" (last image).

Harold
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Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[rjlittlefield]

So from Harold's comment, I guess these are true honeybees in the pictures.

In that case, I think they will all be female, with stingers, since in honeybees the males are drones who do not work.

Yes, stingers can be hard to see. Under normal conditions, the stinger is pulled back completely within the abdomen. In the small collection of 20 or so paper wasps that I just now checked, only one shows the very tip of its stinger. All the others do not show at all. To capture a fully exposed stinger requires some special specimen prep.

--Rik

[Harold Gough]