Types Of Bees

Native to: Europe, Africa, and much of Asia, and has been introduced to all continents except Antarctica

Number of Species: There are 25-30 distinct subspecies, divided into several groups- generally agreed to be the African lineage (Al, the west and north European lineage (M), the southeast Europe lineage (C), the Near and Middle Eastern lineage (0), and a fifth found only in Ethiopia (Y)

Size: The body length of a queen honeybee is 0.96 – 1.00 inches. The body length of a worker bee is 0.81 – 0.85 inches. The body of a male honeybee is 0.47 – 0.51 inches.

Food Plants: Honeybees are possibly the most generalist apis, as they feed on plants from many families.

Description: The color of a European Honeybee is variable, from black bee to yellow, but often with orange and black stripes. Size varies only a little between subspecies.

Behavior and Life Cycle: These are social bees, with colonies that may number more than fifty thousand workers at the height of summer. It is the most widely used commercial pollinator. In the wild, a European Honeybee nests in cavities such as hollow trees, but it is very adaptable and will occupy a range of other cavities, including many designs of artificial beehives. Subspecies vary in aggression, with some African races being very aggressive. Some races, such as those from southern Africa, swarm readily in times of dearth and are less easy to manage than the European races.

Native to: Europe as well as parts of Asia and New Zealand

Size: The body length of a queen garden bumble bee is 0.67 – 0.79 inches. The body length of a worker garden bumble bee is 0.43 – 0.63 inches. The body length of a male garden bumble bee is 0.55 – 0.59 inches.

Food Plants: Garden bumble bees are long-tongued, specializing in red clover, foxglove, honeysuckle, and many other plants.

Description: A black bumble bee with three lemon-yellow stripes (two on the thorax, one on the abdomen) and a white tail. Male, queen, and worker all share this coloration, although the male has a yellow head. Only rarely are all-black bees found. This bee is distinguished from similar species by its long, narrow face. Its very long tongue (up to 0.79 inches/20 mml often protrudes as the bee flies between deep flowers such as foxgloves. Older workers often have a shiny thorax, where the hair has rubbed off against the nest.

Behavior and Life Cycle: Garden bumble bees form short-lived colonies of up to a hundred workers during the summer, nesting in old small mammal nests, shallow scrapes, under tree roots, etc., but no deeper than 20 inches (500 mm) below the surface. These bees will also nest in man-made locations such as in buckets, under sheds, or in compost bins. The queen provisions her nest with supplies, including honey pots of stored nectar and pollen. Males patrol an area, no more than 3 feet (1 m) above ground, scenting it with pheromone to attract the young queens as possible mates. This bee’s nest is parasitized by the cuckoo bee Bombus barbutellus. The Garden Bumble Bee is a placid bee, more likely to wave its mid-leg as a warning than to sting.

Native to: native bees to Europe

Size: The body length of a female is 0.79 – 0.94 inches. The body length of a male is 0.79 – 0.83 inches.

Food Plants: The bumble bee visits a wide range of pollen and nectar sources, including knapweeds, everlasting pea, daffodil, fruit trees, and more.

Description: These large bees, belonging to the family Xylocopinae, are black with dark wings, which in bright light shine purple or blue. They look brown in poor light. The abdomen is hairless. Females have black antennae but male antennae have two orange-red segments near the tip. Males are smaller and occasionally dwarf.

Behavior and Life Cycle: A nectar robber, this bee is active from February to June, raising one and sometimes two broods each year. They nest from April in deadwood, grass stems, or bamboo canes. They also nest in wooden houses and are sometimes regarded as pests. The males emerge first. After a few days of foraging, they patrol several times a day in search of females. Some males are territorial and will pursue any intruders for a distance of 135-165 feet (40-50 m). Should a male encounter a female during his patrol, he will mate. Males and females may both have multiple matings. The mated female excavates a tunnel tilled with a line of brood cells. She completes one cell before starting the next. She makes à pollen and nectar paste, onto which she lays a single egg, 0.4-0.5 inches (9-12 mm) in length. She seals the chamber with saliva. Females defend their nests, emitting intermittent buzzes or flying at the intruder. They are not aggressive to humans and rarely sing.

Native to: Urban, suburban, and rural areas along the East Coast in the United States.

Size: The body length of a female is 0.59 – 0.63 inches. The body length of a male is 0.51 – 0.55 inches.

Food Plants: Blueberry, but they will also visit other unrelated species for pollen and nectar including Gelsemium, Quercus, Cercis, and more.

Description: The female is black with pale fur on her thorax and black fur on her head. underside of thorax, and legs. The male is similar but has white fur on his face.

Behavior and Life Cycle: This member of the family Apidae (tribe Anthophorini) is active from late February until late May. In Florida, they are seen from November to February. Their flight period matches the three- to five-week flowering period of the blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), which they buzz-pollinate. A single brood is produced each year. The males emerge up to eighteen days before the females. They fly in a zigzag pattern above the nest sites and form a mating clump around a virgin female on the ground. The mated female scrambles out to excavate a multi-chambered nest. The main shaft slopes down to two oval nest cells. They are lined with a thin protective waxy coating that permeates the cell walls. One-third of each cell is filled with a pasty pollen mass, upon which a single egg is laid, and the cell is capped with a waxy coating. The nest is left unplugged. By August, the nests contain prepupae. It is not known which developmental stage overwinters. Burrows may be single or grouped under forest litter, in open sand, or in earthen holes. Nests may be abandoned if they are raided by

Native to: North America, extending from the mountainous regions and central plains to the East Coast lowlands.

Size: The body length of a female is 0.20 – 0.24 inches. The body length of a male is 0.20 inches.

Food Plants: Prickly pear, swamp smartweed, blackberry, and aster.

Description: The female is bright green to yellow-green or coppery-green, with golden-white hair on the back of the head, thorax, legs, and abdomen and white hair on the face and front of the body. The male is brilliant green or coppery red.

Behavior and Life Cycle: This primitively eusocial bee (family Halictidae, tribe Augochlorini) is active from May to November. The mated female or foundress builds a nest, often in aggregation, in a grassy embankment or south-facing slope, and provisions the cells for her first brood. On average, seven eggs are laid. The female young emerge as workers, and they are mostly sterile. The foundress lays more eggs, relying on her daughters for food and to nurture the developing brood. This second brood develops into a reproductive population of males and females. They emerge in late summer and mate. Only the mated females overwinter. Rarely. a nest has two small co-foundresses, who produce twice the amount of brood. They divide duties. with one foundress laying eggs while the second forages, despite being a mated female. Should the foundress queen die before the second brood is produced, one of her daughters becomes a replacement queen. Nests produced at the most northerly parts of the sweat bees range tend to be less social, with few or no workers produced by the mated female.

Native to: Europe. Widespread and common in parks and gardens, including lawns, flower beds, and mown banks.

Size: The body length of a female and male is 0.39 – 0.55 inches.

Food Plants: A wide range of plants including weeds, garden plants, shrubs, and trees.

Description: The female has long, dense, bright reddish hairs on the back of the thorax and abdomen. The rest of her body and head are covered with black hair. The male is slimmer and dull brown, with sparse reddish-brown hairs and a tuft of white hairs on the lower face.

Behavior and Life Cycle: This is another member of the Andrenidae family. A single brood is produced between late March and mid-June. The nests are placed in large aggregations. Bees fly out in the spring, from early April until early June, when apple, pear, and cherry trees are in flower. The males emerge first. Flying in zigzag patterns, they seek newly emerged females. The males can mate repeatedly but the females only mate once. The mated female excavates up to three nest burrows in level soil, leaving a mound of soil at each nest entrance, with the main shaft dividing into four or five side tubes. She waterproofs the walls with terpenoid secretions smoothed by her pygidial plate. Into each tube, a single egg is laid. The brood develop into adults and overwinter in their cells. The tawny mining bee does not sting.