After a very mixed week, I was thrilled to find these critters buzzing around on my verandah
They are called Blue Banded Bees or Amegilla sp. and are native to Australia. They are, at the moment, all huddled on the tips of Lepiromia articulata which is in my watergarden. Its been pouring with rain for 2 days and they are all soaked
Another interesting thing that I discovered from aussiebee.com.au, was that they are great tomato pollinators, and are used in greenhouse tomato production. They are very active foragers and each visit about 1200 tomato flowers a day. I don’t have that many tomatoes but have got a few pots going. They are my 2nd round of tomatoes for the summer and are grown from the seeds of my first batch. I’ m loving the little microcosm that’s developing here on my rooftop deck.
10 comments:
I see these little critters all the time up here too ... they don't usually stay still long enough for me to get a good photo of them though ... very nice capture!
They're so cute! We don't have blue banded bees here, but we have yellow ones... nice to see more posts encouraging and educating others about pollinators!
These are the bees i want to see again. They are not that common down here. Great photo
Isn't the rain fantastic!
cheers Ian
Have to agree ... I love the rain ... it's the humidity afterwards that I really, really don't love!! We're suffering it up here today.
Hello - found your blog via blotanical :) I just discovered blue banded bees in my Victorian garden a short while ago too. They buzz so intensely that I was frightened at first, but I was enchanted when I stopped for a closer look!
I only learned of blue-banded bees through reading other blogs from Australia over the past year, through Blotanical--which is of course how I discovered your blog. I envy your lovely weather right now! We are in the midst of a monster snowstorm here in Virginia!
Thanks for all of your comments. Bees are certainly a well loved insect!Im inspired to concentrate a lot more on the insects in my garden, and try not to use any chemicals. And yes.. Im loving the rain!
cheers
Robyn
aloha robbie,
those are exotic bees...wow thats alot of tomato flowers to visit in one day...really busy bees. that was a nice post
Those bees are cool. Ye have such amazing wildlife over there in OZ. Why is it tho, that about 90% of the birds over there sound like the are in terrible agony when they squawk? :)
It's great to see posts about pollinators -- we don't have blue-banded bees here (that I know of), but with the plight of so many bees and other pollinators in jeopardy, it's wonderful to see your encouraging post.
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