Bee plays a crucial role (if not the most important) in the Earth’s ecosystems, therefore they are pretty widely distributed all over the planet. Although, these tiny tireless workers are a very common sighting and everyone’s very familiar with them, you should know there is a bee species that look completely different from the honey bee we all know about – the blue bee – an astonishing bee species that lives only in Australia.
Native to Australia, the blue banded bees are definitely among the most beautiful insects on planet. As their name says, these lovely creatures have their tiny abdomens covered in metallic-blue stripes. But, even though these magnificent creatures can be found all over the continent – except Tasmania – believed it or not, Aussie didn’t know they exist. Not until now, and they just cannot have enough of them!
Recently, a series of the lovely blue bee – taken by wildlife photographer Nick Volpe – have recently emerged online and they went absolutely viral with a lot of Australian people not even knowing these creature existed.
Just like any other bee (or insect), the blue bee also love to wonder from flower to flower. However, they do not produce honey, but instead they’re famous for a kind of pollination known as ‘buzz pollination,’ due to their ability to extract pollen from some flowers by shaking them.
The species, also known as Amegilla cingulate, are far from being aggressive, even though they have stings. The blue bee can grow up to 0,45 inches and they usually live a solitary life, with a lifespan up to 40 days.