Amegilla

Tilcayo Cats original · Amegilla · Sources and editorial assessment · Originals retention rule

Amegilla is a genus of bees in the family Apidae. It includes the blue-banded bees familiar in Australian gardens, the orange-brown teddy bear bee and the much larger Dawson's burrowing bee. The group contains a wide variety of colours and life histories: a fact established for one species should not automatically be applied to all the others.

Colours and identification

Bands across the abdomen may be blue, green, white or orange. In Amegilla aeruginosa, metallic green or bronze hairs cover much of the upper body. Amegilla alpha has orange hair across the upper abdomen, while Amegilla xylocopoides has an entirely black-haired upper abdomen.

Colour alone is often insufficient for identification. Taxonomists compare facial markings, leg hairs, wing features and plates on the abdomen, sometimes alongside DNA evidence. The upper abdominal plates are called terga, the lower plates sterna; a single plate is a tergum or sternite. These terms appear in the detailed species descriptions.

Nests and flowers

Recorded nest sites in the genus include soil, soft sandstone and mudbrick. Some species nest in groups that return to the same place over successive generations. Such an aggregation can consist of individual females each building and provisioning her own nest, as in Amegilla dawsoni.

Members of the genus include buzz pollinators, which use vibrations to release pollen from flowers. This has prompted research on their use with crops such as tomatoes. Amegilla murrayensis has been filmed rapidly tapping the anther cone with its head during pollen collection. These observations establish behaviour in the studied bees, rather than a guarantee that every species has the same technique or commercial value.

Species and changing names

The Australian revisions use the groups Notomegilla, Zonamegilla and Asaropoda. Their taxonomic treatment brought several historical names together as synonyms and distinguished previously unrecognised species. Zonamegilla also occurs widely beyond Australia, including Asia.

In 2026, a revision of Asaropoda in New Guinea described Amegilla angustissima, Amegilla ruficauda and Amegilla sinewita. It also confirmed Amegilla bombiformis in New Guinea. Some new descriptions rested on old museum specimens; publication in 2026 was recognition of the species, not evidence that the bee had only just appeared.

Explore the collection

See the Amegilla Originals collection for the published accounts and the coverage record for unresolved names and work still outstanding. A list of names is not automatically a count of distinct species: synonyms, spelling differences and uncertain identities need to be resolved first.