Wasp on flower

I went to the grove today, well actually, I go to the grove just about every day to look for a blip, but as you see from my blips, often I come away with nothing.

Today I had a specific target in mind. I have been seeing this strange looking bee. It has an abdomen of bright metallic green and black stripes with a thorax of brown fluff. It is extremely fast, spending no more than a second at each bloom, and extremely shy and unapproachable. It hovers in front of each bloom for a split second before entering and this is my target shot. Once it enters the bloom, the shot will likely be spoilt by movement due to the weight of the bee.

The tactic is to sit in front of one bloom, on a stool, camera tripod mounted and focused, finger on the trigger and wait. I waited for two hours. The bee fed on just about every bloom except mine. The problem was not my proximity, as the bee fed twice on an adjacent flower about three inches away from my selection. Unfortunately, the camera does not have a cable release screw on the shutter, which would allow me a much more relaxed position, were I could chase the flies off the mosquito bite sores on my ankles, at my leisure.

I am not that naïve to think that capturing this bee was going to be that easy, I realize that this will be an ongoing project, but when I do capture the frame, I expect spotlight status for my suffering efforts in this searing heat.

The session, although not totally successful, did have its rewards and lessons. This splendid little wasp obliged me with a blip and brought the session to a close. The tactic of static waiting is going to reap results. I just missed a lizard that actually crawled over my foot, but by the time I had retrieved the camera from the tripod, it was well gone. I did get a shot of the lizard, but the focus was off and it really needed flash in that deep undergrowth. Next time baby.

I saw a splendid array of butterflies. I saw a huge black butterfly, must have been a six inch wingspan. Also what must be the worlds smallest butterfly, no more than 3/16" (5mm) wing span, I will have to make an effort to blip that one. Lots of crickets and hoppers just out of reach and about a zillion ants and flies everywhere (itch itch).

For scale purposes, the flower head is about half an inch across.

Update - unable to find a match, but would appear to be of a potter wasp type. Any help appreciated.

Dave