And it’s not surprising that the beloved Honey Bee has taken out the crown 👑
Thank you to everyone who voted!
The Honey Bee is essential for so much of our food security and with the added bonus of collecting delicious honey, these little pollinating powerhouses are our community favourite.
But we were also excited to see that the Bumblebee and Australian Blue-banded bee made it to the top of the polls… These cute fluffy pollinators, each with unique characteristics, help add to the diversity of our planet and are essential for pollination.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit more about this small sample of the 19,000 different types of bees worldwide.
Want to learn more about what you can do to support the bees?
Amegilla cingulata
A solitary nesting bee with beautiful metallic blue fur across its black abdomen. Attracted to blue and purple flowers, they buzz pollinate, and nest in a shallow burrow in clay soil or mudbricks.
Pop up window opens
Bombus bee family
These social insects form colonies ranging in size from 50-400, with nests usually found underground. There are over 250 different species which vary in appearance, they’re often larger than honeybees with rounded abdomens and are covered in fur. They do not make honey but are excellent pollinators.
Pop up window opens
Megachilidae bee family
A solitary nesting bee that collects leaves to line their nest, creating neat crescent or almost circular shaped holes in garden leaves. They are superpollinators and can pollinate the same amount as 20 honeybees.
Pop up window opens
Xylocopa
An iconic bee species native to Australia which is sadly critically endangered. A beautiful jewel green in colour, they can grow up to 17 mm long and are friendly and harmless. Solitary nesting, they burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo.
Pop up window opens
Megachile mystaceana
With a red or bright orange abdomen that stands out against its black body, this cute native Australian solitary nester is an excellent pollinator who carries pollen on its abdomen in a ‘pollen brush’. A great resident for a pollinator house, they seal their nest with a mix of resin and mud.
Pop up window opens
Tetragonula carbonaria
These little Australian stingless bees live in colonies with a highly developed social structure comparable to honeybees. Much smaller than a honeybee and mostly black, they collect and store quantities of honey in beautiful hexagonal combs formed in a distinctive spiral pattern. Farmed mainly for pollination and conservation.
Pop up window opens
Amegilla bombiformis
These cute bees resemble bumblebees and are covered in orange-brown fur with dark hairless bands on their abdomen. Solitary nesters, they build individual small burrows in the soil, often in creek banks. They are buzz pollinators and have remarkably long tongues particularly suited to tubular-shaped wildflowers.
Pop up window opens
Osmia bicornis
These special little insects are excellent pollinators and can do the pollinating work of up to 120 honey bees! Frequently metallic green or blue in colour, they gain their name from using mud or other masonry products to build their solitary nests. Docile, harmless and non-territorial, they’ll often build nests right next to each other.
Thyreus nitidulus
Unlikely to win most popular, the Neon Cuckoo Bee is a stunningly beautiful bee with a metallic blue sheen and slick, black wings. These native bees have a parasitic lifestyle to ensure the survival of their offspring and prey on the Blue-banded Bee by laying eggs in their burrow and stealing the resources within.
Apis mellifera
The most commonly farmed bee for both pollination and honey production. Their complex social structure and intelligence are widely studied, particularly in regards to their ability to act as a superorganism with a “hive mind”. They have highly evolved navigational skills and communicate by dancing!