Thyreus caeruleopunctatus

Thyreus caeruleopunctatus is a species of cuckoo bee native to Australia, recognizable by its distinctive blue-spotted coloration and its parasitic reproductive behavior.

Like other cuckoo bees, Thyreus caeruleopunctatus is a brood parasite, meaning it lays its eggs in the nests of other bee species rather than constructing its own nest or collecting pollen.

Thyreus caeruleopunctatus is a brood parasite of solitary Amegilla bees, which are the ground-nesting species whose nests the cuckoo bee invades to lay its eggs.

It is called a cuckoo bee because, like cuckoo birds, it lays its eggs in the nests of another species—in this case, solitary Amegilla bees—and leaves the host to unknowingly provision its offspring.