Our protagonist on the right, the bee. Was enjoying his romp in the pollen on this afternoon where I just happened to be shooting a picture of this flower. It was only seconds later that our antagonist, the wasp on the right, flitted into this pollen patch. Both the bee (on the right) and the wasp (on the left), kept their distance and didn't seem too distracted with having to share their nectar neighborhood. But soon, the bee got jealous and buzzed a little to close to the wasp's side.
That's when the pistil fight commenced --each making menacing passes at each others' stamens. The wasp's jabs were obvious more threatening and the bee eventually backed off -- remembering that discretion is the better part of valor. He zoomed off to another flower in the neighborhood where he quickly took back up the task of pollen powdering in pursuit of nectar.
--steve buser
