Home

Aussie Bee Online
Welcome
New Articles


About Native Bees
What are Native Bees?
Bee Photo Gallery
Bees in Your Area
Common Questions
Rescuing Native Bees
Bees in Houses - Advice
Exotic Bumblebees

Stingless Native Bees
What are Stingless Bees?
Buying Stingless Bees
Keeping Stingless Bees
Honey Production
Crop Pollination

Study Native Bees
Field Guide
Information Booklets
Tim Heard's Book
John Klumpp's Book
Aussie Bee Back Issues
Seminars
Links

Support Native Bees
Aussie Bee Shop
Order Form
Who We Are
Donations
Privacy Policy
Free Newsletter
Website Survey
xx

Cuckoo Bee Photos
by Erica Siegel,
'Peter O' and Kathleen Coffey

Aussie Bee Homepage > New Native Bee Photos > Cuckoo Bees

In this gallery, the magnificent colour patterns of native cuckoo bees (Thyreus) have been showcased by three talented photographers.

Erica Siegel contributed the following two superb cuckoo bee photographs to Aussie Bee:

bluebanded bee

Above: the blue spots on a cuckoo bee are patches of iridescent blue hair.

blue banded bee roost

Above: cuckoo bees lay their eggs in the nests of blue banded bees.


And these three fabulous cuckoo bee photos were contributed by 'Peter O':

cuckoo bee

Above: this cuckoo bee is grooming itself with its legs

Thyreus cuckoo bee

cuckoo bee

Above: this cuckoo bee is sipping nectar from a basil flower


Three common species of cuckoo bee are the Neon Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus nitidulus), the Chequered Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus caeruleopunctatus) and the Domino Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus lugubris).

The first two have blue spots, whilst the Domino Cuckoo Bee has white spots (see our Cuckoo Bee photo gallery). You can distinguish the Neon Cuckoo Bee and the Chequered Cuckoo Bee by the pattern of the spots on the abdomen. Compare the following two photos:

Kathleen Coffey captured this beautiful photo of a Chequered Cuckoo Bee. Notice that each row across the abdomen consists of four markings:

Chequered Cuckoo Bee

Above: the Chequered Cuckoo Bee

In comparison, as can be seen in the following 2011 photo by Erica Siegel, a Neon Cuckoo bee has only two blue markings in each row across its abdomen:

Above: the Neon Cuckoo Bee

© 1997-2018 Australian Native Bee Research Centre
PO Box 74, North Richmond NSW 2754, Australia