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A group of blue-banded bees (Amegilla cingulata) are on the holy basil or tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) plant in the evening at Tehatta, West Bengal, India on September 6, 2022. The blue-banded bee is naturally a solitary bee and it is a big help in the vegetable garden, performing a particular type of pollination known as “buzz pollination”, or sonication, in which it holds onto the flower and shakes its body rapidly. This type of pollination is really useful on crops such as tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, kiwi fruit, eggplants, and chilies. For this reason, the blue-banded bee is extremely valuable to farmers. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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