Wanted to share some pics I took this past Sunday in my garden. It’s a furry, silvery mystery bee with black and white stripes I hadn’t seen till after this recent rain.
These bees were significantly smaller than my honeybees, moved faster, and also seemed more timid, and afraid of honeybees when they landed on the same flower.
It was really hard to get a good picture of them (click to open the pics at the original size). I was really happy to see them enjoying my African Blue Basil!
For comparison, here are some regular looking honey bees which were also sharing the African Blue Basil.
This regular honey bee was darker in coloring, but still a regular Apis Milifera.
So what is this Mystery Bee?
Doing a little research online, I suspect I was seeing Anthophora curta Provancher bee, based on this and this link.
Anyone know it, or seen it before?