This morning (Saturday 5 July 2014) I had a look in the Hollyhocks and saw two Tetralonia bees still not properly awake at 8 a.m. They are not early risers.
As I bent to take the photograph from a different angle I noticed that there were three! It had been a rainy night with cooler overnight temperatures so I wonder whether its warmer to share your hollyhock shelter with others?
a french garden 
a nice place to sleep 🙂
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I love the idea of the bees tucked up in the flowers for the night! Amelia
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How lovely! Would it be ok if I use one of these photos in the Ealing Beekeepers Association’s next newsletter, along with your name and a link to your blog?
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You are very welcome to any of my photos. I post them on a reduced size so that they load up more quickly, if you need them in their original size I could Dropbox them to you. Amelia
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They had obviously been partying the night before!!
I think I’ve spotted these here…
or very similar…
bees with these very long antennae?
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That seems to be the obvious explanation now that you mention it!
The male has very long antenna. You get a similar bee Eucera longicornis in the U.K. they are closely related; Eucera have 2 sub-marginal cells and Tetralonia 3. Amelia
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Gorgeous! I have seen similar bees sleeping in the ‘blooms’ of my dogwood tree. Although they don’t seem to get together, precisely keeping to one bee, one ‘bloom’.
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That’s really interesting and I have some dogwood coming into flower so I’ll keep a look out to see if I can find any. Amelia
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Smart of the bees to spend the night protected by the flower petals.
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This is a particularly common behaviour for this type of bee but I have often found bumble bees sheltering inside flowers. Amelia
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Clever bees to share bodily warmth!
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You can see the first signs of socialisation among some of the solitary bees. Some mining bees share nesting tunnels, the Tetralonia are sharing a comfortable night time gite. Amelia
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You are very lucky to have spotted three bees on one flower, it makes for such a charming picture. Philip
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Some bees are cuter than others and I think the Tetralonia are very photogenic. Amelia
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