Euryglossa calaina

Euryglossa calainaEuryglossa calaina female

Photographs Gary Taylor ◦

My first sighting of species Eurglossa calaina, also known as the Native calaina euryglossine.

One last one for now… when I first spotted this one I saw the metallic blue bum and caught a glimpse of yellow up near the top and because of it’s size and shape I didn’t look properly and thought it was another Hylaeus alcyoneus on the Hakea, got pics of one last week, wasn’t trying too hard…

Wasn’t ’til I loaded the pics on the computer and got a better look I realised “No it’s not”… Exact same shape and size but it’s not alcyoneus… Not even sure it’s a bee to bee honest, hoping it is, but gut is telling me it’s a wasp… pics are crap, windy day, it was busy foraging and as much as the Hakea is a great drawcard, it’s a bastard of a plant to get clear pics on… might have to call in some old mates on this one…

Author Gary Taylor

I’m going to go out on a limb here… It may well reinforce my lack of IDing skills. The basitarsus looks to be a bit too wide to be a wasp (pages 14-15 pocket book guide ⁴, but the body doesn’t scream bee… but I’m going to guess it’s a bee anyway… 🤞 I look forward to being corrected 😁

Megan Halcroft

Megan is correct that the width of the hind basitarsus suggests this is a native bee. It is a Euryglossinae bee which means the bee eats pollen rather than carrying pollen externally so without characteristic external hairs normally associated with bees the native bee looks more like a wasp. There are at least two euryglossine species in WA with a collar of yellow fringed hair behind the head. One is Euryglossa cupreochalybea (cupre = yellow) which occurs in SW WA and the other species is Euryglossa calaina which occurs further north. The second is Gary’s bee and it does not seem to have been recorded as far north as Gary’s location. Gary’s images are probably the first known live images for this species. Nice one Gary and a good ID Megan.

Ken Walker

Check out the blog… So here she is… Euryglossa calaina

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Subphylum: Hexapoda
• Class: Insecta
• Informal: Pterygotes
• Order: Hymenoptera
• Superfamily: Apoidea
• Informal: Apiformes
• Family: Colletidae
• Subfamily: Euryglossinae
• Genera: Euryglossa
• Species: Euryglossa calaina

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Euryglossa calainaEuryglossa calaina female

EuryglossinaeIndex Callohesma Dasyhesma Euhesma Eurglossa adelaidae Euryglossa calaina Euryglossa ephippiata Euryglossina fuscescens Xanthesma

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