Yesterday afternoon I was outside behind my house picking blackberries when I spotted this little green bee zooming around between a number of the wildflowers out there. I keep the back of my property wild to help support the local wildlife. It also gives me a great place to take photos that is literally just outside my door. I also harvest some of the blackberries and passion fruit each year for my own consumption. The rest are left for the wild things and to reseed next years crops. Anyhow, I followed the little bee and got a few photos of it while it was feeding on some blackjack flowers. I thought it was a pure green sweat bee, but it did look a little different. When I started to do a little research, I realized that it was actually a female brown-winged striped sweat bee (Agapostemon splendens). I have seen the males before and they are easily distinguishable from the females because they have a yellow and black striped abdomen. To me they look like a small cross between a yellow jacket and a sweat bee. Unfortunately, I haven’t ever gotten any decent photos of one of the males, but I know with patience, I will, and then I will share it with all of you.

Like other sweat bees, brown-winged striped sweat bees are social bees and do produce honey. Like most honey bees, they collect pollen in sacs on their hind legs to take back to the nest with them. You can see in the above image that this lady is pretty well loaded up. Also like most other honey producing bees, these bees are pretty nonaggressive, but they can sting if provoked, so they should be approached cautiously. I personally love watching these little guys if for no other reason than their brilliant green colors. They really do shine like metal when the afternoon sun hits them right.