Blue Banded Bee Mark 2

Great excitement today. We visited two Open Gardens, with the brand new monopod, and I had the best time. Except when I tripped over my own feet at the first place, and landed squarely on my rather large backside - completely flattening their solar powered path light! But we won't talk about that.

The excitement came because I spotted another Blue Banded Bee (Amegilla cingulata). These are solitary Australian Native Bees. I don't think they are particularly rare, but they are not commonly seen. Their flight pattern is very different to the regular honey bee - it's more like that of a hover fly - they dart around very quickly. They are more like bumble bees in their build, very beautiful and quite endearing.

Anyway this bee was quite a bit smaller than the one I caught in flight a few weeks ago, so I think it is a female, plus she has four blue bands (the male has 5). This one is having a nice little rest before heading back to her burrow to feed the larvae.