I managed to capture this cute little critter darting quickly around the basil flowers at Habitat in Harmony Community garden. This is a Blue Banded Bee ('amegilla' genus from the apidae family). These bees are very special because unlike common honey bees (introduced European species) these are native to australia and due to habitat destruction, they are sadly at risk. Blue banded bees are one of our most beautiful Australian native bees.
This post was begging to be reblogged what with the beautiful yet curious bee! Has anyone else heard of these? Chris, a very interesting thing indeed!
I have these bees in my garden (I too live in Sydney). They’re easy to “spot” by their sound. They are MUCH louder than a honeybee and sound slightly different than a fly. They are hard to photograph (I’ve not yet managed to capture one) because they move too quickly (at least the ones I’ve seen when I’ve had a camera in my hand). They are solitary bees and live in litte tunnels they make in sandstone, river banks or mortar between bricks. Because of this there’s no direct competition with introduced honey bees.
We tried building a nesting spot for them in our insect hotel (old logs with holes drilled in them and hollow stemmed branches) by putting clay and sand in pipes – but that mixture turned as hard as concrete. I’m not sure where the ones in my garden live, but they’re often spotted, espcially when native trees are in flower.
Posted by Laura Rittenhouse | January 24, 2013, 12:02 amSounds more like a bumble than a honey, especially that loud bit!
Posted by mylatinnotebook | January 24, 2013, 3:19 pm