In observation of National Pollinator Week (June 22-28), meet a digger bee, Anthophora urbana.
This solitary bee, which nests in the ground, is also called an "urbane digger bee." A species of anthophorine bee in the family Apidae, it's native to North America and Central America.
This bee is black with gray hairs, including gray bands around the abdomen. It measures 10–13 millimeters (0.39–0.51 inches) in length.
We've seen them forage on lavender and catmint from early spring to summer in our family's pollinator garden.
Their floral hosts include lavender (Lavandula spp.), catmint (Nepeta), sage (Salvia chamaedryoides and Salvia mellfera), phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) and toadflax (Linaria purpurea).
"These bees fly so fast, you often only see a grey streak zoom by," wrote the authors of California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, (Gordon Frankie, Robbin Thorp (1933-2019), Rollin Coville, and Barbara Ertter, all professionals affiliated with the University of California--(Frankie, Coville and Ertter are from UC Berkeley, and Thorp, a doctoral alumnus of UC Berkeley, served on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty from 1964-1994. He was honored with the title of UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor in 2015.)
Yes, this bee is fast, oh so fast. We captured these images with a shutter speed of 1/3200 on a Nikon D500. We pre-focused on the flower where it would land next.
