Honeybees might get all the rock star attention, but the humble Australian native blue-banded bee is a true head banger.

Scientists have captured the unique pollination techniques of the bee (Amegilla murrayensis) in slow motion video as it pollinates a cherry tomato flower.

"Tomatoes (and many Australian native plants) are 'buzz pollinated': the flower is like a salt and pepper shaker and bees shake the pollen out through pores in the anthers," said native bee expert Dr Katja Hogendoorn from the University of Adelaide.

Dr Hogendoorn and her colleagues found the blue-banded bee gets the pollen by banging its head on the flower's anthers at a staggering 350 times a second.

"When you translate that to acceleration, it's almost insane levels, among the highest we've noted in the animal kingdom," said Dr Hogendoorn's colleague, Dr Sridhar Ravi from RMIT University.

The bee holds the flower with its legs while vibrating its thorax muscles. It then somehow transfers these vibrations to its head.

These vibrations normally drive the bee's wings, but in this case the wings are disengaged and the energy is used to vibrate the anther.

Bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) in North America also buzz pollinate, but they do it directly with their chest muscles, vibrating at 240 times per second.

Dr Hogendoorn said that not only do blue-banded bees vibrate the flower at a higher frequency than bumblebees, but spend less time per flower.

"Together, this suggests that Australian blue-banded bees may be more efficient tomato pollinators than bumblebees," she said.

The research will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Arthropod Plant Interactions.