Genus Osmia
Subgenus Cephalosmia
Having never seen one of these before, I was quite intrigued by the way this bee landed on this flower near Powder Mountain
in Weber County, Utah and quickly vibrated its way across it. It did this on every flower it landed on. Another one came
along that was a little smaller and did the same thing. I'm assuming one was male and one female. © Carol Davis 6-21-2015
I noticed these bees were hairy and had a strange-looking face (shown below) so I knew they were something
different in all kinds of ways. I've never seen a bee vibrate across a flower but I understand from reading
snippets about this behavior that bees do it to loosen pollen, to alert other bees to a good pollen source,
or for sending messages to females during courtship. In the case of honey bees, they vibrate in the
hive to increase the temperature when needed. © Carol Davis 6-21-2015
I cropped this photo way down to try to show the face. © Carol Davis 6-21-2015
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