Night Bees

Heard of the night parrot? I bet you have. What about night bees?? Yes, there are nocturnal and crepuscular (fly at dawn and dusk) bees!! And yes, they collect pollen and nectar and do the things that day-flying (diurnal) bees do. But in the dark! All bees have three little spherical structures on their heads called ocelli, which are like little extra eyes that help them see and orientate. Compared with day bees though, night bees have much larger ocelli, relative to their head size, which is one of the traits that enable them to fly in low light. In the photos below are one nocturnal bee (Megalopta centralis) and one crepuscular bee (Rhinetula dentrictus) from Panama. These I encountered while light trapping in rainforests there. They were attracted to light just like moths. Here in Australia we have one bee species, Reepenia bituberculata (QLD), which is believed to be a night flyer? It has enlarged ocelli, but no one has actually observed it flying at night. Elusive? The elusive night bee of Queensland…?!!