Fork-tailed Flower Bee (Anthophora furcata)

This is the fourth and final species of Flower bee I'm ever likely to see in the garden.

All flower bee species can be seperated on sight from other bees by their distinctive flying style, alternating between hovering over a flower or hyperactively zipping about at speed, emitting a shrill-like buzzing sound as they go.

This is the mid-sized species of the five. Both sexes are largely brownish in appearance. Males have characteristic yellow faces with relatively little hair, while females can be identified by a shock of reddish hairs at the tip of the abdomen and their densely-furred hind legs.

Like all the Flower bees, Anthophora furcata have long tongues to feed on deep, tubular flowers, predominantly in this species, the flowers of various 'Dead nettles'.

On the wing from May to late August, males can often be found patrolling the tops of flowers searching for a mate.

Females prepare nests in dead wood and use compacted wood dust to line them. Each nest contains a number of sealed nest cells, each containing an egg provisioned with pollen and nectar.

A furcata is more nationally widespread than the other southern-based flower bees, but not as numerous as The Hairy-footed Flower bee (A. plumipes) is in its geographical range.