Littler's masked bee
Hylaeus littleri
Littler's masked bee is a small bee that lives only in south-eastern Australia. It is mostly black with yellow and bright rusty orange markings. It loves to visit banksia flowers.
Lives in
Only south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania and the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia
Length
5.5 mm (0.22 in)
the length of the maleWhat does it eat?
It drinks nectar from flowers, for example banksias.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds⚡moves 760 times its own body length every second
How big is Littler's masked bee compared to YOU?
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How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Littler's masked bee about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The male is only 5.5 millimetres long, about as big as a grain of rice.
2
The very first one described by scientists came from George Town in Tasmania.
3
It was described in 1918 by Theodore Cockerell, a British-American insect scientist.
4
Masked bees carry pollen home in their tummy instead of on their legs.
you asked
Most asked questions about Littler's masked bee
?What flowers does Littler's masked bee visit?
It visits flowering plants such as banksias.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hylaeus littleri
- Named by
- Cockerell, 1918
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Colletidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Colletidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Hylaeus littleri (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Simon Taylor. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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