[Daisy]

I don't know the name of this insect, but I call him The Bumbler.
He loves the nectar my flowers produce. But whereas the pretty butterflies, bees and hover flies, daintily hover, land and collect the nectar, The Bumbler does just what his nickname suggests.
He blunders around amongst the flowers. Then he lands as heavily as a probationary co-pilot.
The flower bends right over under his weight, so he has to hang on upside down.  Then the flower bounces back up as he does his ungainly take off. He is very comical to watch.

I notice however, that he cheats with the Nicotiana sylvestris.
He lands on the back of the open flower, then walks up to the top where he pierces the flower to get at the nectar that way.

Here he is on a flower that at least, can bear his weight.
Daisy

[MikeHardman]

That's a carpenter bee, Daisy.
They seem black until you get the sunlight on them at a certain angle, then you see a lovely violet-blue sheen -
hence the scientific name Xylocopa violacea. There are several related species of carpenter bee.
Yes: they, like quite a few other bees, have discovered the back-door to the nectar larder.
And I think your name 'Bumbler' is very apt:)

[David Bracey]

We call the carpenter bee the "Bourdon noire" - black bourdon which are solidary bees and buzz when they fly past. I met my first Bourdon in the Dordogne where a former sweet pea judge had been given the honour of growing on some nuclear seed for some breeders in the UK.  (Nuclear seed is produced in very small quantities by the breeder and being scarce, is valuable). The resulting seeds were sent back to the UK for growing-on and failed dismally since not one seed came true to expectation.  The trial was repeated the following year because it was assumed the favoured member had simply mixed up the labelling of the seed batches however the same thing occurred again.

I was called in to try to determine what had happened and it was then that we discovered the bourdon going from sweet pea to sweet pea merrily cross-fertilising as it went.  The bees would land on the front lip petal, which they were heavy enough to weigh down, in their search for nectar.  Other insects would not have been heavy enough to do this.

As I remember, the progeny from the nuclear seed was sent to certain countries such as Malta, California or Australia for bulking up. 

[Daisy]

The carpenter bee, or The Bumbler as I still call him, really likes my Salvia guaranitica Black and Blue.


006 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr

It has been flowering all summer and there is usually around a dozen Bumblers on it.


007 by Daisyincrete, on Flickr

Daisy

[Alice]

Your bumbler must know how well that Salvia suits it, Daisy!
And I was wondering if the intense blue Salvia we recently acquired from a nursery (unnamed, of course) is a Salvia guaranitica.

[Alice]

Here are some more photos of the carpenter bee, taken two days ago. This time feeding on Teucrium fruticans and Mandragora (autumnalis?).

[Alisdair]

They're such handsome creatures, I love seeing the purple glints as they bumble heavily past....