This utterly surreal bee is like nothing you've ever seen before – unless you're from Australia

Australian animals are famous for being different, says Stuart Blackman. Even the bees refuse to conform to the rules. In almost every respect, this fine specimen looks like a normal honeybee. Except that its stripes are not yellow, but blue – hence the name blue-banded bee.

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Another quirk is the characteristically intense, shrill buzz it makes in flight. The sound has a practical purpose: the bees perform what is called ‘buzz pollination’, in which they vibrate their wings vigorously to loosen pollen for collection from flowers. For some reason, the bee seems to have a preference for blue flowers.

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And it's not the only blue bee for Its nests are parasitised by another species, the neon cuckoo bee (also blue – and pictured above) whose larvae feed on their hosts’ stores of pollen and nectar. 

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