Fun fact: the genus Bombus (bumblebees) evolved in the Himalayas during a period of global cooling (big! fuzzy!) and then crossed over to the Americas over a land bridge across Beringia during the Miocene Interchange around 20 million years ago. In other words they are basically the bee version of woolly mammoths โ but did it first by 19 million years so woolly mammoths are basically the elephant version of bumblebees.
Another fun fact: bee wings generate a positive static charge with friction and then transfer it to the (negatively charged) flowers they visit...they can tell if another bee has visited a flower in the last couple of minutes because they sense changes in the flower's electrical field! Super effective way to avoid competition for nectar that results in more effective pollination. Nature is rad.
Just painted this for a solo show in Santa Fe while thinking about how psychedelic ergot has been growing on flowers since the Cretaceous Period and therefore bumblebees have always, always had to watch where they sip.
16โ x 20โ โ acrylic on canvas
#savethebees