These guys are cool! Today we have “DeathMatch 2006″ (guess who won?).

The challengers are Mr. Wasp & Mr. GreenBee, and the Champion is Mr. GreenSpider. I’ve seen a few of these green bees hanging around the yard, but they’re smaller than the yellow bees, and seem to move a lot quicker, so they can be harder to catch when taking photos.

I asked Mr. GreenSpider to hold the bee so I could take a photo of him, and he was nice enough to accomodate me.

This would be the last time Mr. Spider would be so accomodating….

Now the picture on the left shows the Champion pinning down a wasp who was none too pleased to find himself in such a predicament.

I watched (and photographed) as these two combatants went toe-to-toe in the floral arena, but I was hampered by a flower-stalk that kept getting in my way, so as I was photographing, I tried to diligently move the offending stalk without disturbing the action.

It was a very warm day, and, much to the chagrin of my neighbors, I was out there in my short-pants and no shirt.

Just when I had the stalk cleared of the action, it suddenly sprung back and flung both the wasp (who was still very much alive) and the spider (ditto) onto my unshirted belly. Where they went from there is anybody’s guess, but I never saw Mr. GreenSpider in my yard again. I’ll bet he was pissed…..

Nikon D70, with a Nikon 105 mico lens, handheld.