[blondin]

even though the picture is not real, that's a truly beautiful creature! to be honest, i would personally prefer blue bees over yellow. there's just something about the color blue...

[notadog]

Why would you say that the picture is not real? That is a bold claim to make without any evidence, especially since you are incorrect. For anyone curious, image was originally published in the scientific journal ZooKeys. (https://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=2987)

[djsumdog]

oh wow, and that article has the face pollen the original article is talking about.

[xipho]

The color is absolutely real. Many Hymenoptera, and other insects have this coloration. It structural, not pigment, bouncing light around via microscopic grooves and ridges. Fun fact, most Hymenoptera are also very very small, ~2mm or so, and some the chalcid, or jewel-wasps are very often iridescent.

Someone just pulled off this same effect with Chocolate a while back. [1] (NTY paywall]

[1](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/science/chocolate-irisdes...)

[Eiriksmal]

The iridescent blue color of the massive Steel-Blue Cricket Hunter wasp is stunning to see in real life: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=steel+blue+cricket+hunter&i...

[dTal]

I know someone who pulled off holographic chocolate - 3D images - several decades ago. The technique is more or less just lithography on a mould.

Turns out people aren't interested in actually eating it. They assume there's some weird coating.