Australian Native Bee Library
Amegilla - Zonamegilla and Notomegilla
Blue-banded bee
Amegilla cingulata is one of the most visually stunning bees, with a goldy thorax, and black with metallic blue bands on the abdomen.
It is one of the most popular Australian native bees and was voted Australian Insect of the Year in the inaugural competition run by the ABC in 2024.
But there are in fact numerous Amegilla bees.
Blue-banded bees fall into two categories, or subgenera, of Amegilla – Zonamegilla and Notomegilla.
Of the Blue-banded bees, also known as Banded Amegilla, not all have blue bands, or even bands at all.
Amegilla chlorocyanea, which is the most common and widespread of Amegilla, has pale-blue and cream bands.
Some have brilliant bands, others have white bands or goldy bands and some have no bands at all.
All Amegilla are relatively chunky bees, about the size of a European honey bee (Apis mellifera), but much chubbier. The females carry pollen on the hind-legs, like honey bees, but unlike honey bees, they carry pollen, which is not mixed with nectar.
Taxonomy
Amegilla (Zonamegilla) cingulata
Family
Apidae
Subfamily
Apinae
Genus
Amegilla
Subgenus
Zonamegilla – 12
Notomegilla – 2
Species
cingulata
“Blue-banded bee” may refer to the species Amegilla (Zonamegilla) cingulata, or collectively two subgenera of Amegilla: Zonamegilla (12 species) and Notomegilla (2 species).
Distribution
Australian Amegilla occur all over Australia, except in Tasmania, but the different species are found in different regions.
Amegilla cingulata is found along the east coast from northern NSW right up to the tip of QLD.
Habitat
Most Amegilla are quite diverse in their habitat preferences in that they can occur in bushland, rainforest and urbanised regions in home gardens and botanic parks.
Floral preferences
Amegilla are generalists, known as polylectic: they forage on a range of flowering plant species from diverse, unrelated families for pollen.
They can forage on flowers with longer corollas (tubular-shaped flowers) because they are “long-tongued” bees.
Favourites are Plectranthus and Eremophila for example. They also forage on buzz-pollinated flowers; favourites include Hibbertia, Dianella and Melastoma.
Role in pollination
Female Amegilla species perform a type of pollination known as buzz-pollination or sonication. Some flowers will release pollen only if they are vibrated at a particular frequency, and honey bees are unable to perform this type of pollination.
Amegilla in contrast are excellent buzz-pollinators. They do this by curling their body around the anthers (male parts of the flower) and banging their head against them rapidly buzz-pollinated plants include tomatoes and bush tomatoes.
Other crops they pollinate include ginger and basil. They are also important pollinators of native flowers.
Life cycle
Amegilla love the warmer weather. The different species have different season in which they are active, but for Amegilla cingulata peak activity season is November to March.
Based on studies , Amegilla pulchra can create about one cell a day, which involves 10 to 18 pollen load trips. Females appear to live for about 3 to 5 weeks. They create 2 to 13 cells per nest.
At the start of the ‘bee season’ A. pulchra males take about 48 days to develop and emerge, while females take about 50 days. In warm climates, up to four generations emerge during one season. However, as the season comes to an end, the final generations does not emerge. Instead, the offspring will diapause (suspend development) and emerge once the weather warms later in the year.
Sociality
Amegilla are solitary, meaning each female digs and uses a nest of her own. Females will, however, often nest close by in nesting aggregations, and are attracted to nest in soils that have previously been inhabited.
Nesting
Amegilla are ground-nesting species. The nests are relatively shallow – about 5-10cm deep. They often nest in sandy-clay or loam soils, protected from rain (e.g. sloping banks).
Conservation status
Like 99 per cent of Australia’s native bees, no Amegilla species has had their conservation status assessed.
Amegilla cingulata is, however, not likely to be listed as Threatened with Extinction. It is widespread, so common that you will often see them in urban gardens, and, as mentioned, they are able to forage on a range of flowering resources, even exotic plants.
Threats
Although not likely to be threatened with extinction, this does not mean that Amegilla cingulata is free from threats that cause population declines.
Known threats include:
- Impervious surfaces such as concrete and tarmac overlaying bare ground.
- Loss of foraging resources due to urbanisation and agriculture practices.
- Competition for food resources from the Apis mellifera.
- Climate change: climate change can threaten bees in numerous ways, including disrupting the flowering times of their host plants, altering nectar and pollen chemistry, and placing heat stress on bees. Research on Amegilla chlorocyanea has found that as summer progresses, their energy requirements drastically increase, which would place pressure on them as climate warms, especially if food resources decline.
Fun Facts
Amegilla cingulata was the first Australian Amegilla to be described, back in 1775.
Males will fight each other during the day, but at night, when there is no competition, they will cluster together on stems to sleep together, gripping the stem with their mandibles.
With written contribution from Kit Prendergast