Resin-dauber Bee - Chalicodoma sp.
Family MEGACHILIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Resin-dauber Bees that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 12mm
- We found those resin cells in Anstead Forest on March 2009. They were attached on a large gum tree trunk about one meter above ground. We collected them by cutting with the bark, brought them home and check what would come out.
- We carefully open the top of one cell and found a pupa inside, but we accidentally damaged it.
- We used a stand to hold the bark and the cells and kept in a large jar.
- Two bees hatched on Dec 2009. They were kept in a large jar and die without our notice.
- On the Christmas day 2009 morning, the third bee came out. The bee first rested on the bottom of the stand, then it slowly walked up on the stand. We put the stand outside in our backyard and it flied away after a few minutes.
- The bees are orange-brown in colour with black bends. Wings are tinted in dark colour. Their body are covered with dense short hairs. The have large yellow eyes on large head.
- On 22 Jan 2010, another three came out.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 999.
