Bees are one of the most, if not the most important species on the planet, as it is estimated that one-third of the food we consume each day relies on their pollination.
If bees die off, we all will suffer the consequences.
In one part of China for example, workers were forced to pollinate crops by hand after the area was unable to sustain populations of the critical flying insects.
If you’ve been following the news lately, you probably know that the situation is dire.
In the meantime, these bees are doing their best to survive in the wild, judging by a priceless photograph that has gone viral across the web.
While millions of people have likely seen the photo by now, the story behind it is perhaps even more interesting.
“The story behind these photos [begins when] me and my fiancé Niccole went out to find poppy flowers,” said photographer Joe Neely to Bored Panda.
“On the way back we saw this patch of pink flowers just off the highway, so we stopped to take some photos.”
The man was out looking at flowers with Niccole when they began to notice something extraordinary inside.
It’s a reminder that the best moments in life, and wildlife photography, happen spontaneously.
“Niccole was shooting this orange Globe Mallow plant that was hidden inside all of these pink flowers, and she heard the bees buzzing about,” the 38-year-old Neely, of Phoenix, Arizona said.
“Then she notices that some of the flowers had bees in them, but they were not moving.”
The bees appeared to be almost drunk, which added to the uniqueness of this incredible capture.
“I came over and studied it for a while, and more bees showed up. Soon, all the vacant flowers were occupied, and this one bee was left out.
“She crawled over to this open flower and got inside with the other one. I was watching as he stumbled around almost drunk-like and then got settled in.”
The Photo That Changed What We Knew About Bees
Prior to the photo making its rounds on social media, most people had no idea that bees slept in flowers.
Finding these “sleeping bees” is far from easy.
“Well, I never knew that bees slept in flowers but as it turns out this type of bees (Diadasia diminuta) sleep in the orange flowers called Globe Mallows,” Neely said.
“They don’t have eyelids, so you can’t just look for bees with their eyes closed,” Brandon Hopkins, a bee researcher at Washington State University, added.
The bee in this now-famous photo, also known as Diadasia diminuta, plays a major role in the reproduction of flowers.
So if you ever see one resting in a flower near you, be sure not to get to close, and try to take your picture from a safe distance so as not to disturb it!
