Blue-banded bees are into buzz pollination

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Vince took this photo of a blue-banded bee in my sister’s garden. The bands look more white than blue but trust me, in real life, they're blue. The blue-banded bee (Amegilla cingulate) is one of Australia’s native bees and named for the distinctive bands of metallic blue fur across black abdomens. They perform ‘buzz pollination’. Some flowers hide their pollen in tiny capsules. When buzz pollinator bees grasp these flowers and shiver their flight muscles, the capsules are stimulated to burst and shoot out their pollen. She then carries the pollen from flower to flower, pollinating as she goes. These are solitary bees and females build a nest in clay soil or sometimes in mud bricks. Many may make their burrows close to one another, like houses in a village. Mother Nature has a lot of amazing secrets.