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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.
- Neon Cuckoo Bee (top one) and Blue-banded Bee, body length 15mm Photo thanks to Kylie Hungerford
- The 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
- 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.
- 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.
