Females of Ctenocolletes are ground-nesting and two species are known to burrow to depths of 2.7-3.2 metres, the deepest known burrows of any Australian bee. Males are `super bees' that patrol areas of heath so fast that they may scarcely be glimpsed, although they are clearly audible.
At least fifty species of bees inhabit the bushlands around Perth and several occur quite commonly in suburban gardens and city parks. Blue-banded bees (Amegilla species) are the most likely to be seen. About the size of a honeybee, they are distinguished by their rotund form and black-and-white-banded abdomen, the white bands often tinged with a bluish iridescence. They visit flowers of many garden ornamentals, both native and exotic, in spring and summer. Their flight is noisy and characterised by alternate hovering and darting. Our commonest species, A. chlorocyanea, makes its shallow nests in sandy soil while a related species in the Darling Range nests in harder soils and may colonize mud-brick walls.