The mighty Monarch butterfly and the industrious honey bee.

How rare we see them together on the same flower.

But that was the case last Friday at the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden planted next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis.

The butterfly touched down on a brilliant orange Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) and began nectaring. A honey bee crawled up the petals. So there they were, sharing nectar. They saw one another. They acknowledged one another. And they ignored one another.  

Finally, the bee buzzed off to forage on her very own Mexican sunflower.

It was a butterfly-bee moment. Or more technically, a Danaus plexippus/Apis mellifera moment.  

Two may be company, but sometimes it's best to get your own flower.