Blue-banded bees are not the only stars of the Amegilla genus. Another group includes teddy bear bee, the red singer and Dawsons burrowing bee.
These fine-looking bees are among Australia’s most visible because of their large size and widespread occurrence. These are densely hairy, often of brown or orange colour. They lack the bright abdominal bands of the blue-banded bees. Males and females are about the same size, typically around 15 mm body length (close in size to a honey bee, bigger than most blue banded bees). Technically, these bees belong in the subgenus Asaropoda.
This subgenus contains 21 species and is widely distributed across Australia. Like the blue banded bees, they vigorously vibrate certain flowers to extract the pollen (buzz pollination). For details of the rich diversity of the Asaropoda go to the brilliant recent revision which includes how to identify all species.
All species are beautifully illustrated, like the page shown here of Amegilla flava from southern Australia. Congratulations Remko, James and Katja for your superb contribution: Leijs R, Dorey J, Hogendoorn K (2020) The genus Amegilla (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Anthophorini) in Australia: a revi-sion of the subgenus Asaropoda. ZooKeys 908: 45–122.
Free download available here. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.908.47375