Dawson's Burrowing Bee

This dark-winged bee species is among Australia's largest bees, similar in size and coloring to Xylocopa, or carpenter bee, species. The bee can get up to 23 mm in body length and 45 mm in wing span. Both sexes are densely furry, with the exception of their lower facial regions, which jut outwards and tend to be bare, and colored anywhere from light yellow to dark brown.

The Amegilla dawsoni is located only in Australia. The bees can be found in the arid regions on the Western half of the continent. They are widespread across this region, with the northern and southernmost extremes of their mating and nesting distributions being approximately 700 kilometers apart. This region is known for its limited and randomly distributed rainfall, which can result in a resource deficit of flowering plants. In this case, the bee has been known to migrate north and south along its distribution to nest in better-suited environments.

The female bees do not need to enter the flower corollas to collect nectar. They collect nectar by inserting their long proboscis into the flower. These bees collect nectar from four main genera of plant. They will forage at these plants even if there are more readily available sources of nectar and pollen. These include:

Cassia Eremophila Solanum Trichodesma

Australian wild bee ecologist Kit Prendergast has a large tattoo of two Amegilla dawsoni mating on her right shoulder.