ASDP Bees

Alice Springs Desert Park

The Alice Springs Desert Park is home to a number of native bees, including the Amegilla (Blue-banded Bees). Also, frequent visitors to the desert park is the common introduced Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera).

Click on the thumbnail images to go to the individual bee page…

Amegilla chlorocyanea bee, Alice Springs Desert Park, NT — Amegilla chlorocyanea

Native bee - Braunsapis sp. in Native Bluebells (Wahlenbergia queenslandica), Alice Springs Desert Park NT — Native bee – Braunsapis sp.

Exoneurella eremophila on the Golden Everlasting (Xerochrysum bracteatum) — Exoneurella eremophila

Lasioglossum (Chilalictus), Alice Springs Desert Park NT — Lasioglossum (Chilalictus)

Lasioglossum (Homalictus) on Poached Egg Daisy (Polycalymma stuartii), Alice Springs Desert Park NT — Lasioglossum (Homalictus)

Whilst some of the native bees can large, others can be very small, so a closer inspection of the many flowers in the desert park, can reward you with seeing what you may have thought was some other insect genera, as actually being a native bee.

Bees belong to the Order Hymenoptera, that includes wasps, ants and sawflies, within Suborder Apocrita and Superfamily Apoidea. They are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There is considered to be over 20,000 bee species worldwide, living on every continent except Antarctica. They live in a range of ecosystems from forest, grasslands and arid desert regions.

There is more information about our native bees in Alice Springs Bees and Insects > Bees > Bees – image index.

White Spider Flower (Grevillea albiflora), Alice Springs Desert Park — *Apis mellifera* on the White Spider Flower (*Grevillea albiflora*), Alice Springs Desert Park NT

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
(unranked): Unicalcarida
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Apoidea
Clade: Anthophila
Families:
- Andrenidae
- Apidae
- Colletidae
- Halictidae
- Megachilidae
- Melittidae
- Stenotritidae
Synonyms: Apiformes

Footnote & References

Can you beelieve?! Our guide to native bees, by Eliza Keckm, 30 Aug 2018, CSIROscope, https://blog.csiro.au/can-you-beelieve-our-guide-to-native-bees/
Bees (Epifamily Anthophila), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/630955-Anthophila

ASDP BeesAmegilla chlorocyanea Bee Braunsapis sp Exoneurella eremophila Bee Lasioglossum (Chilalictus) Lasioglossum (Homalictus)

ASDP InsectsInsects Index Ants Bees Beetles Butterflies & Moths Diptera Gyromantis Hemiptera / Heteroptera Orthoptera Tropidoderus gracilifemur Wasps

ASDP FaunaASDP Arachnida ASDP Spiders ASDP Birds ASDP Insects ASDP Marsupials ASDP Mammals ASDP Reptiles Monotreme – Short-beaked Echidna

Alice Springs Desert ParkFauna Flora Nature Theatre Nocturnal House