Neon Cuckoo Bee - Thyreus nitidulus
Family ANTHOPHORIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Neon Cuckoo Bees that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 15mm
- The Neon Cuckoo Bee are cleptoparasitic in the nest of Amegilla sp.. Neon Cuckoo Bee female does not make its own nest. It lays egg in the nest of Blue-banded bee. Female places an egg in a partially completed brood cell. After the blue-banded bee finishes provision and seals the brood cell, the cuckoo bee egg hatches into larvae and feeds on the provisions stored by Blue-banded bee.
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- Photo thanks to Kylie Hungerford Photo thanks to Kylie Hungerford
- Above pictures show three Blue-banded Bees and one Cuckoo Bee. They rest on grass stem in small group, as shown in the above picture. They hold themselves on stem by their jaws.
- On Feb 2011 we found this bee visiting flowers during late afternoon.
- Reference:
- 1. Native Bees of the Sydney region, a field guide - Anne Dollin, Michael Batley, Martyn Robinson & Brian Faulkner, Australian Native Bee Research Centre. P55.
- 2. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, Fig.42.45H.
