bug of the day

"Hey, what's that big thing sitting on our rain barrel? Is that a bumblebee?"

"It's huge!"

"Wait, that's not a bumblebee - that's two bumblebees! What the heck are they...ohhhhhhhh" [*goes to grab camera*]

This is the first time I have ever seen bees mating. I have no idea why they decided to do it in our driveway, on the rain barrel. When they disengaged, the female (large and on the left) turned around, kind of clawed at the male, and then took off with a loud buzz. The male sat there for a couple of minutes and then dizzily tottered into the water. I rescued him and put him on the ground but I am not sure if he made it.

Here is a photo of them taken a few minutes after this one.

Circus of the Spineless'd on 10/04/2007!

Blogged here, in Russian I believe, and the Babel Fish is of little help to discover what they are saying. I think they mention the relative small size of the male and something about them having coloring similar to pandas ;-).

Update: Identified as Bombus impatiens by the good folks at bugguide.net.