Help identifying this bee

[swflcpl]

This bee hits various things around our property.  The lack of yellow, which most of the other honeybees have and it's foraging habits make it way different than most of the girls around our place.  This one seems like a honeybee on espresso, the way it goes from flower to flower is VERY quick, as opposed to the girls with a lot of yellow seem to slowly move from flower to flower.  These ones with lack of yellow banding also seems a tad smaller than the yellow banded girls.



Thanks
Bobby

[Vance G]

There are lots of solitary bee pollinators.  We don't have that particular one here in the North. 

[marktrl]

It's probably a Mason bee.

[BeeMaster2]

That looks like a honey bee to me. Most of my hives have a few black bees and most have small bees. Hard to tell size in that picture. Great job on getting a good clear picture.
The flight pattern does sound more like a mason bee.
Jim

[swflcpl]

Thanks everyone. I took a movie with the iPhone and then found a frame with a clear shot of her and took a screen shot and cropped down to the pertinent parts.

[swflcpl]

I started looking at photos of mason bees online and noticed they were usually all dark and had a green tint to them.  This girl here still has yellow up on her thorax and is furry.  Here are some more screen captures

[richter1978]

I have been seeing those around here lately also.  I see darker banded bees in a few of my hives but these have a very black abdomen.  I took a picture about a week ago. I can't figure out how to post the photo.  Last year my wife and I watched one try to enter a hive for about an hour with no success.  I was hoping that they were some sort of survivor stock living nearby.

[GSF]

I have some that look like these in one of the packages I bought.

[DMLinton]

That bee looks a lot like an Apis Melifera Melifera (AMM) - the old time dark British bee that was supposed to have been extinct but is not.  If it is, It would most likely be from survivor stock.  I would be looking for the mother colony.

Compare with http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/jpg/darkerbee.jpg, or http://aramel.free.fr/Apis-mellifera-mellifera-f-2.jpg. or http://aramel.free.fr/Apis-mellifera-mellifera.jpg

[Evan W]

I had a bee just like that land on me when I got out of my truck Saturday. It did look like a honey bee but on the skinny side.