went out to the backyard and sat down to watch the bees this afternoon and saw the wierdest sight the bees have provided me yet!
a butterfly about half the size of a monarch was flying around in the cloud of bees coming and going from the hives. as i watched i noticed that the butterfly was not only circling very fast but would pick one bee and chase the bee for about 10 to 20 feet.
this butterfly was able to catch up with a fast moving bee with ease.
this continued for 10 to 15 minutes, long enough for me to call jp and ask if he had ever seen this before.
of course he had not :?
this continued until we went in around dark.
the butterfly was dark grey black with blaze orange areas. the only way i saw that was because the critter landed for a moment.
bailey
All I see around my hives are assassin bugs and lizards and two different types of ants.
Sometimes I'm convinced I'm keeping lizards instead of bees, they're everywhere!
...JP
and where are the pictures?
that sounds neat. I'd bet it has something to do with both being nectar loving insects; but I sure don't have any insight.
did it flap it's wings slow(relatively speaking) like a butterfly or were they going crazy fast like a hummingbirds wings do?
it was a butterfly, i saw it land. but it did flap it,s wings fast.
i have seen a moth that moved it,s wings fast like a hummingbird but this was not it.
bailey
Well you just nixed my thought. I have seen hawk moths occasionally here that are black with red marking although less than half the size of a Monarch. They do fly very fast, but I've never seen them near my bees. So I guess the search is still on for your rabid butterfly. :evil: