Lessons in Humility
On a walk near my in-laws' home in Fort Myers earlier this month, I wandered down by some woods marked as a "natural area" and, ever-so-slightly nervous about what I might mistakingly step on with my sandaled feet, just happened to catch a glimpse of an iridescent flash of green disappear down a tiny hole in the dirt. Thrilled, I crouched down with my iPhone focused on the hole for a good 5 minutes or so, hoping the shy, little critter would come back up and give me a better view. It poked its head up twice more but for such a short time that I was never able to get a good look (and this is the best picture I got). Despite that lack of a good view, I nevertheless felt very confident it was NOT a bee, as the iNaturalist Auto-Recognition Tool kept insisting, with its suggestions. Bees don't have big, iridescent green heads and burrow in their own little private tunnels. It has to be some kind of beetle!
But I was wrong. They can, and they do.
Three fellow iNaturalist users kindly corrected me, though no one suggested an ID more specific than "Bees"--understandably, given how little you can actually see of the insect. I have looked it up since then, however, and found that Metallic Green Sweat Bees (from the Family Halictidae) are a good example of what kind of bee it might have been--bees with iridescent green heads that live in solitary nests in the ground.
And now I know! Thank you, iNaturalist.
As always, I am so grateful to everyone who takes time to ID my observations and everyone else's for that matter, too.
