I found this bee outside in my laundry basket. I took some photos of it against the white plastic and then placed it on a sage flower. It dived into the flower to sip the nectar and then rested on an empty calyx.
This is a New Zealand native solitary bee of the
Leioproctus family. At 1cm in length it was a lot bigger than the usual solitary bees I see here.
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| The bee uses the hairy parts to collect pollen, which with nectar, is stored in each nursery chamber with a single egg. The burrows are in soil. |
