My sweet autumn clematis is just coming out of full bloom. We had quite a few beautiful sunny days this month, and there were dozens of bees making good use of the white honey-scented flowers. I went out with my macro one day and got as close to the bees as a I could – they were so drugged by the flowers they didn’t even notice me. It’s tricky to do close-up shots without a tripod, but I needed to be able to move quickly to keep up with the bees. Fortunately the light was excellent.
Jessamyn Tuttle 
Gorgeous photo!
FYI: That’s actually a hover fly. They have short, straight antenna as opposed to the long, bent antennae of bees and wasps. Hover flies (sometimes called flower flies) are known as wasp mimics. They’ve developed their coloring as a survival mechanisms, as wasps have so few predators. Aren’t they smart? And they don’t sting. I love them 🙂 If you perform a Google image search for syrphidae, you can see them in all sorts of shapes and sizes! Here’s a link to the best hover fly photo I’ve taken. Even its eyes have spots and stripes! http://www.flickr.com/photos/coyote/1055802972/
Fair enough! I thought they probably weren’t true bees but I’m not up on insect ID. Awfully cute, though!