Green Yellow-shouldered Bee
Size 11mm. This wasp was found on a dead fallen tree log near grassland. It would not let me approach enough to take a proper picture, was very alert. It is shimmering green. I must have disturbed some golden tailed ants, with lots of these large animals being everywhere. The wasp actually did not even look very different. It has a bright yellow shoulder, large eyes, short antennae. It readily flies away, but never far, only far enough to be out of photographic reach. No identification was found yet. Since it is a large animal, I am confident that there are many representations out there. Update 25/9/2017: Yesterday, I had the pleasure to observe this species in our front yard. I will reclassify the previously found Yellow-shouldered Wasp into this Green Yellow-shouldered Bee gallery. It is surprising how extremely similar the specimen look. I would estimate the size downwards a bit though to 9 or 10mm. I also matched the animals with http://www.bowerbird.org.au/observations/72921 (accessed today), but am unsure if the identification is correct. The matched specimen and my two occurrence records are all from different places but within a radius of about 3km. So, it could be the local morph. If it is the Hylaeus euxanthus this taxon varies extremely. Compared to the matched Bowerbird picture, my specimen shows a shorter yellow shoulder patch that does not meet in the middle. The hind legs are a give-away, being white banded. The front of the head has two bright white marks between the lateral eyes, one on each side and divided by a dark patch in between. The ocelli are well developped, stick out a bit. In terms of behaviour, I noticed a flying insect in the 80cm deep hole I had dug for a fence pole a short while ago. The bee behaved like a fly, going back and forth quite quickly inside the hole, rarely making contact with the walls, but going quite deep down into the dark parts. It seemed to scan the area either for prey or for a nisting spot. I could only see the yellow shoulder patches when it came out of the hole. It rested on the pole that was laying right in front of the hole. It actually even had a brief meeting with at least one colleague. They seemed to exchange and were not hostile towards each other. The meeting was on top of the black pole. One wasp was visibly interested in a small clump of dirt on the pole, retreating there, going back into the hole and coming back. It didn't seem to be feeding but probably tried to hide from me.
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