Karate Kick!

If you've ever watched a karate competition, you've probably seen the roundhouse kick, tornado kick, the reverse roundhouse kick or the flying side kick.

But have you ever seen a bee do that?

We were photographing sunflower bees on our Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) yesterday, trying to catch the territorial dive-bombing. We were shooting with a Canon E0S 7D equipped with a 100mm macro lens. Settings: ISO, 1600. Shutter speed,  1/1400 of a second. F-stop, 10.

If bees could engage in humanlike conversation, imagine this dialogue:

"This flower is mine! Get off! I want my ladies to have that flower!"

"No, it's not! It's mine. I was here first! Leave me alone!"

For awhile, a large bee, a male longhorned bee, Svastra obliqua (as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis), appeared to be the "king of the mountain." It held its ground...er...floral resource.

Suddenly, faster than my shutter speed, a smaller bee of a different species, a male longhorned bee, Melissodes (probably Melissodes agilis, Thorp said) headbutted Svastra,  a scene reminiscent of a World Cup play.

One swift kick by Mr. Svastra and a surprised Mr. Melissodes shot straight up in the air, whirling end over end. 

Roundhouse kick? Tornado kick? Reverse roundhouse kicK? Flying side kick?

Whatever it was, the "bee master" won.

And he wasn't even wearing a black belt.