Aromatherapy

It was sleeping bumblebee day in the garden today. I followed this huge Bombus terrestris queen around the Viburnum tinus as she sipped from some of the flowers, then watched her land on a leaf, tuck in all her legs and subside. After a couple of seconds she roused slightly, crawled forwards until her head was right over the nearest flower, and then relaxed again and went to sleep. I've never seen this behaviour before, and I was rather charmed by her apparent desire to use the blossom as a pillow - maybe she found the scent especially soothing.

While I was photographing the Blossom Queen I was alerted by loud buzzing to the presence of another Buff-tailed Bumblebee, and followed the noise round to the other side of the rose bed, where the second queen landed on a sunny aucuba leaf, dug in her claws and zonked straight out. She's in tonight's second photo, which isn't as attractive as the main image, but is somehow more amusing. I think it might be because she looks so totally abandoned: puppies and kittens crash like that, and occasionally I've seen babies just topple over and go to sleep, but even after chasing around after them for quite a few seasons, I'm still surprised to see the same behaviour in insects.

Top tip: when a bee is properly asleep its antennae relax and droop, and you can photograph it to your heart's content from as close as you please. If the antennae are still up and twitching, your bee is just taking a quick breather, and needs more caution if you don't want to put it to flight.