Osmia texana, f, side, Blandy, VA
Pink Pollen Bee. Meet another lover of thistles. The large and late season Osmia texana. The pink pollen is the pink pollen of thistles (I think one of the non-native ones so maybe other thistles don't have pink pollen?). This bee is part of an experiment run by Dawson Little at Blandy Experiment Station in Virginia (UVA) an undergraduate working with T'ai Roulston and Kate LeCroy. You can't see it well, but this bee is adorned with knobby armatures on the tip of the clypeus and often its massive mandibles, not clear why. Odd to see all the pollen packed into the front legs...also unclear what is going on here. The things you can do if you have six legs.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr