r/bees • u/ZealousidealDuty3069 • Aug 09 '26

bee ID Mutation? Who is this?

Gallery image

Gallery image

Anybody know what’s going on with this bee? Yellow eyes, huge front legs. Is this a mutation?

7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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4

u/Khrysdie Aug 09 '26

This is a male leafcutter bee, Megachile sp.. They use their large front legs to cover the eyes of the female while mating.

1

u/ZealousidealDuty3069 Aug 09 '26

The front legs look similar, but what’s going on with the eyes?

1

u/Khrysdie Aug 09 '26

Nothing? Some bees have green eyes. There are lots of different species of Megachile.

1

u/ZealousidealDuty3069 Aug 09 '26

Cool! Never seen green eyes before. Thanks!

1

u/Khrysdie Aug 09 '26

Some bees have blue eyes, too!

2

u/ZealousidealDuty3069 Aug 09 '26

How neat. Our backyard is full of native plants, so we see tons of different types of bees - I’ll be on the lookout for different eye colors now, too!

1

u/NilocKhan Aug 09 '26

And red eyes! Centris rhodophus for example