this digger bee (Amegilla sp.) was using its tongue to poke at a flower for which adjectives such as "old" and "dry" feel too generous, with something like "mummified" being more appropriate. no pollen or nectar could have possibly been found on those crusty leathery remains, so i'm not sure what its objective was

Blue-banded Bees:

BBBs are a few species in the genus Amegilla, which are also known as the "digger bees". As the name would suggest, they dig burrows into the ground, where they lay their eggs. The live in Australia, South and SE Asia, and parts of Oceania.

They often engages in buzz pollination.

Australian Banded-Digger (Amegilla cingulata), family Apidae, QLD, Australia

photograph by Jane C. Frost

Northern Blue-banded Bee (Amegilla walkeri), family Apidae, NW Australia

Blue-Banded Bee - Amegilla sp. Resting.

One evening, I was climbing Ajinkyatara fort (Satara), actually in search of flowers, but I came across a blue-banded bee, which was about to sleep. I have seen in posts so many times on social media where these bees cling to stem with their mouthpart, with often multiple individuals nearby. I always wished to come across this scene. I had previously seen these bees many times in the Kaas (Kaas Plateau - World Heritage Site, Satara) region, but I never saw them sleeping.

This one appears to be a male bee. Male bees are known to have more bands than female bee. And they can be seen clinging to thin stem with their mouthpart. This is what I find amazing - they keep their entire body in air, including their all legs, and they hold onto stem just by their mouthpart. And that’s it. Compared to us humans, this is very unusual way of resting/ sleeping (but again we are comparing it with humans…).

Went out hunting for teddy bear bees (Amegilla albiceps) and struck gold! They were too busy to stay still for photos, but I managed to grab a few shots.

@chandrayee submitted: Look at my pretty Lil visitor today!! It's probably from the genus amegilla but of course I couldn't identify the species. I've heard it's quite difficult to do so. Heh anyway enjoy! I'm from India btw, near Bangladesh! Heh

Northern Blue-banded Bee (Amegilla walkeri), family Apidae, NW Australia