Blue Banded Bee

Description:

This year there are even more of these little bees in my garden. Tiny, very fast moving, they stop and hover from time to time before darting off again. Spend very little time on each flower, so one has to photograph them in flight. This one seems to frequent my tomato patch. Male has 5 bands, females, 4.

Habitat:

rural garden

Notes:

Last photo shows the size compared to a tomato plant. Blue banded bees perform a special type of pollination called buzz pollination. Most flowers release their pollen passively, but others like the tomato flower only release their pollen when the flower is vibrated rapidly – ‘buzz-pollination’. Bees capable of buzz-pollinating clamp their legs onto the anther cone of the flower and contract their flight muscles so vigorously that the pollen is released.