[griffinkelly]

I was just discussing blue bees with my friend--they're native to Australia. I had no idea they were in North America as well.

[caf]

It's a different species though, this is the Australian one: https://imgur.com/X1vf3v4

Oddly enough they're solitary, rather than living in hives.

[stormdennis]

I think most bees are solitary and live in burrows they make in the ground. And only two species of bee make honey.

[markdown]

> And only two species of bee make honey.

Not true, unless you mean that humans only harvest the honey of two species.

[stormdennis]

I'm sure you're right, I was just quoting something someone told me one time and I probably picked them up wrong.

[throwanem]

Nothing odd about that. The popular concept of a beehive is a style of sociality specific to honeybees, which aren't even native to North America. It's only their economic importance that leads them to be regarded as the "standard" bee.

[artursapek]

Wow, that is a beautiful creature.

[Gibbon1]

Last time I read about bee's I found that bees range from totally solitary, to gregarious, to communal, to a large number of eusocial colonial species.

[leorio]

is this Australian? seems like it's endemic to United States FL.

https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.8725...

[caf]

By "this" I meant the bee in the example picture I linked, Amegilla cingulata.

[BurningFrog]

That's how you're not found!

[prawn]

I live in Australia and have gardened for decades paying attention to bees and other insects around me. The first time (just recently) that my parents talked to me about blue-banded bees, I was convinced they were trying to trick me. I had never seen one in my 40ish years. They've since sent me photos of two that they've encountered.