Strange Bee-haviour

I found this little cuckoo bee (Nomada sp. - possibly N. succinta, but there are scores of rather similar species to choose from!)   clinging on in his strange way to a developing Amelanchier fruit in the garden this afternoon, apparently feeding on something that looks like it might be a fungal mould. It has beautiful eyes but rather less attractive habits, since it's a kleptoparasite of the nests of other solitary bees. 


Africa Gomez over at BugBlog has just posted some very fine photos of its victims and Annie Gates, a gifted young wildlife photographer, has another photo of a cuckoo bee, much better than mine, over on her father's blog at The Living Isle.