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Amegilla cingulata
A. cingulata has a very striking appearance. Unlike the honey bee, it has pale blue stripes on its abdomen instead of yellow. The male can be distinguished by the number of complete bands, having five as opposed to the females' four. In size, A. cingulata can grow to 10–12 millimetres (0.39–0.47 in). Its appearance includes a golden brown head with bulging eyes that have multiple lenses. They have six sticky legs and a long tongue to help extract nectar from flowers. Scientists believe that male bees have brighter blue stripes to attract female bees.
Although A. cingulata is native to Australia, it is also found in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor and Malaysia. It appears to live in tropical and subtropical regions. The bees inhabit urban areas, woodlands, forests and heath areas.
Spotted on Mar 4, 2012
Submitted on Mar 4, 2012
3 Comments
Great story! (This is perfect information for the 'Notes' section of your spotting btw)
Hi Craig, these are the males that are settling in for the night. Usually they cling to twigs or branches but this group seem to have developed a liking for my mates sun catcher. He says that they come and settle in every evening just before sunset and are gone in the morning. Blue Banded Bees are solitary creatures, they do not build hives, so this group of males are all rivals and it's pretty cool to watch them jockeying for the best spot on the strings.
Very interesting! Why are they so fascinated with these strings ?