Togetherness in the rain - on a globe artichoke

I believe/hope this is the same as one of Mollyblobs drones - see her picture here. You will find her journal absolutely fascinating. I didn't know any of the following until I saw her blip on July 31st.

Molly wrote: "This bee is a male buff-tailed bumblebee Bombus terrestris, also known as a drone, and exists solely for the purpose of mating with the queen. The queen will have several drones lined up to mate with her, and if a drone is lucky enough to mate with the queen the two bees will go into a mating flight, and have sex in mid-air. Unfortunately, this can only happen once as his penis and abdomen get ripped from his body during the mid-air hookup, and he quickly dies.

"Life isn't so good for the drones that don't mate with the queen either. Worker bees feed the young drones until they are ready to mate. Those that don't mate with the queen get kicked out of the nest and starve to death. So while all the workers and queen will have been able to stay warm and dry during the deluge, this little creature had to sit it out, hence his bedraggled appearance."