Fire-tailed Resin Bee - Megachile mystaceana

Family MEGACHILIDAE

This page contains pictures and information about Fire-tailed Resin Bees that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Body length 15mm

The above photo was taken in late afternoon in Wishart Bushland during late summer. Fire-tailed Resin Bee has black head and thorax. Its abdomen is distinctively bright, orange-brown in colour. This is a solitary bee and build nest by resin, gum or mud in enclosed spaces such as space between folds of fabric and old Mud-Dauber Wasp nest. They will nest in drilled wooden blocks too.



This bee likes to visit flowers of family Fabaceae.



On Feb 2009, we repaired the pergola in our backyard and had a wooden board left. We drilled a few 10mm diameter holes on it and hung in the pergola. Few days later we had an occupancy.


Reference:
1. Native Bees of the Sydney region, a field guide - Anne Dollin, Michael Batley, Martyn Robinson & Brian Faulkner, Australian Native Bee Research Centre. P48.