Ivory Banded Digger Bee - first featured star of Pollinator Week

All hail the mighty little Ivory Banded Digger Bee Anthophora urbana !

These solitary bees nest i the soil, often in flat, bare ground.

Their peak flight activity is from June through September.

The flowers of choice for them are lavender and salvia, but I often see them around the De La Mina verbena plant, as in the image above.

These bees are almost constantly in flight and dart very quickly, which makes it very difficult to photograph them.