Ever seen Carpenter bees mating?

A first for me and taken on the "Macro" setting on the "Super zoom" from a 10 meter distance.

Later edit after posting! Ooh, I managed to make a GIF and it looks good, see below!

I have taken many of them single, the male an almost golden color and the female, bigger than the male, black with two yellow bands across her back.
Some females in dryer areas have two white bands across their backs.

This is a male Carpenter bee (Xylocopa caffra) and apparently they are only found in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere.

A close up in flight shows you how handsome he is and no wonder that the females are after him.
If I had his looks I would be blessed, or cursed with a harem 🤣

All of a sudden she was here and SITTING, so this guy wasted no time.

No pick-up lines needed, just a bang, bang thank you ma'am and she was gone.

Just to give you a graphic illustration of what I saw, here's my homemade gif!

I was stunned, as I have not seen this before and even this guy looked a bit dazed at his success 😜

Xylocopa caffra is a species of Afrotropical carpenter bee that ranges from west to central and southern Africa, besides Madagascar and some Indian Ocean archipelagos.

The females are black with two white or yellow bands over the hind thorax and first abdominal segment respectively, while the males are uniform greenish yellow in colour. Females with white bands are associated with dry climatic conditions during larval development, but females of either colour, or colour grade, may emerge from the same brood. In the Western Cape all have yellow bands however. A form with orange-red bands occurs in East Africa. Source

And That's All Friends!

I wonder if it's natural to BEE 🐝 a bit jealous of this guy? 🤣
Jokes aside, this is amazing nature!

Note: All photos are my own and taken with old trusty, a Canon Powershot SX60HS camera.
The experts say that it will cost too much to replace some old parts and that I should use the camera until it dies.
I also have the Canon Powershot SX70HS, but use it very sparingly.

We hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity

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