Types of Bees

Honey bees are ‘social’ bees, and live in large colonies often consisting of around 50,000 – 60,000 workers.  The Western or European Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera is one of the best known species and is commonly kept by beekeepers, who then harvest their honey.  In the wild, they nest in tree trunks and natural caves and large crevices.  They may sometimes make use of man-made structures, such as chimneys.

Honey bees are used extensively in crop pollination too, and along with other bees, they help to put food on our plates.

They are able to forage in cool temperatures when other bees are absent, and are very important for pollinating certain crops, such as almonds.

Bumble bee colonies are usually fairly small, from 50 to 400 workers, but usually around 120 to 200. Most species are ‘social', but there are also parasite species, known as 'cuckoo bumble bees'. These parasitic bumble bees inhabit the nests of other bumble bee hosts.

Bumble bees are excellent pollinators of many kinds of flowers, and are a welcome and familiar site in gardens. Their efficiency as pollinators is partially down to their furry body, but also because they are some of the bees able to 'buzz pollinate'. 

If you're lucky, you may catch a glimpse of leafcutter bees snipping neat segments of leaf from a plant or bush, or perhaps making a nest in your bee hotel.  You can watch videos of this activity on my page about leafcutter bees. 

Leafcutter bees cut neat segments of leaf or petal with their jaws.  They return this to the site of their nest, and use it for constructing their egg cells in existing crevices and hollow plant stems. Leafcutter bees are common in gardens, but look out for them in other environments too!

Pictured above is the Coastal Leafcutter bee, Megachile maritima.
 

Mason bees  like to make nests in crevices, sometimes in old mortar, or even empty snail shells.  Belonging to the genus Osmia, the name means 'odor', referring to the scent they use to mark their nest entrances.  Around 500 species of Osmia have been identified around the world.

Pictured above is the red mason bee - Osmia bicornis.

Mining bees belong to one of the largest families of bees, with around 1400 known species.  Andrena comes from the Greek for 'buzzing insect'. Mining bees are solitary, although females usually build nests quite close to each other.  Andrena species are important for pollination of some key crops, such as blueberries, apples and cranberries.  

From the name, you probably guessed that mining bees excavate tunnels and cells underground. If you're lucky, you may see evidence of them in your garden: little mounds of earth in lawns, borders, that look a bit like worm casts. In general, they seem to prefer sandy soil.

Pictured above is the Painted Mining Bee – Andrena fucata.

Carpenter bees are large, burly bees.  More than 500 Xylocopa species are known worldwide.  Species are found in tropical regions, in the USA, Canada, and Europe.  They are known to buzz pollinate.

Xylocopa is Greek for 'wood worker', referring to the nest making habits of this species by chewing tunnels into wood. 

The species pictured above is called an Eastern carpenter bee - Xylocopa virginica which is sometimes mistaken for a bumble bee when seen in gardens.

Plasterer bees are also known as 'cellophane bees', and sometimes even 'polyester bees'.  They are known for creating and lining their nests with a waterproof substance.

Pictured above is the Ivy Bee - Colletes hedera.

The gorgeous wool carder gathers hairs from plants, rolls them into a ball, and uses them to create its nest. 

Some of these species can be mistaken for wasps because of their yellow and black body markings.

There are around 160 known species worldwide. 

Pictured above is a Wool Carder Bee, Anthidium manicatum. 

The word Anthophora means 'flower bearer'.  There are around 400 known flower bee species worldwide. These bees are able to buzz pollinate, and some will emerge in the cool weather to forage in early spring.  Above is a hairy footed flower bee - Anthophora plumipes feeding on a very useful source of early spring food for bees - Pulmonaria.

Pictured above is the Hairy-Footed Flower Bee - Anthophora plumipes.

Nomad bees could easily be mistaken for small wasps. They are cleptoparasites, often attacking the nests of bees from the Andrena genus, but sometimes the nests of Colletes, Lasioglossum and Eucera, among others.  They are especially easy to spot when they are flying low around nest burrows of ground nesting bee species.

There are around 700 known species worldwide.

Pictured above is the Gooden's Nomad Bee, Nomada goodeniana.

Long-horned bees are beautiful! Eucera means 'well-horned' in Greek.  The 'horns' refer to the long antennae present in the males.  Around 400 species are known worldwide.

Over 300 species  of furrow bee have been described worldwide.  In some regions, various Halictus species are known to sip sweat from humans, and as a result, may be known as ‘sweat bees’ (along with species from the Lassioglossum genus, which also belong to the Halictidae family).

The Greek word Halictus is believed to originate from the Greek term for gathering or collecting. These bees tend to have a distinctive striped appearance.   In terms of foraging, they are generalists.  Look out for these charming bees foraging on wild flowers such as knapweed and thistles, or look to flowers from the Asteraceae family (daisy type flowers) in your garden.  Pictured above is an orange-legged furrow bee.

Yellow-faced bees are small, enchanting bees, and this is the only bee genera native to Hawaii.  They are found around the world, with approximately 50 species on mainland North America, and 12 species in the UK.

These bees line their nests with a silk-like substance, and you can watch them in action on my page about Yellow-faced bees.

These small, blackish bees can easily be mistaken for little black flies.  Look out for the hairy pollen brush on the abdomen (only present on the female) and the slight curve to the tip of the abdomen. This species can be found in a variety of habitats across Europe, North and Central America, Japan, Asia, India parts of Africa and the Pacific Islands. They collect resins from trees - often pines, which are then used to construct nest cells.

Read about the foraging and nesting habits of Resin Bees.

The females of these gorgeous bees have especially long pollen-collecting hairs on their rear legs. They nest in sandy ground and may bee seen foraging on thistles, knapweeds and yellow composite flowers.  Entomologist, Steven Falk notes that 30 species have been described, all from the Old World.

Above is the Pantaloon Bee, Dasypoda hirtipes.