Centris aethyctera, m, right, Costa Rica
A lovely fuzzy Centris (C. aethyctera). collected by Tim McMahon in Costa Rica. Compact and relatively large the 200+ species all live in the New World. Unlike almost all of the other bees, these will hover, often zipping around flowering trees and flower patches at high rates of speed, braking, hovering a second or two around a flower and moving on, sort of like shoppers during a Black Friday sale (hopefully Black Friday sales only occur in the U.S.). This particular species runs down the West Coast of Mexico to expand to all of Central America but not expanding into South America. Like most bee species, something limits its global range and like most species why those limits exist are unclear. Photo by Anders Croft.
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