Family Colletidae - Colletid Bees

Colletid Bees are short tongue bees. They burrow in ground, especially in clayey soil. Some of them are hairy.

Colletid Bee

? sp., subfamily Euryglossinae, body length 20mm
We took those pictures in Karawatha Forest in mid summer. There was a small sand dam to stop the rain washing the dirt to the footpath. There were quite a number of wasps digging hole there. They flying back and forwards, chasing each other, digging holes and walking in and out of the holes. They favour the small dam could be because the sand were loose there.

Their body is brown in colour. On their abdomen there is the white pattern which makes their waist look narrow. Although they have a waist but which is not narrow as most of other wasps or bees.


Reference:
1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 995.
2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p302.
3. Colletid sp. Colletidae - Insects of Townsville, by Graeme Cocks, 2004.