Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while most species (>90%) – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.
A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America, North America, and Australia.
A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains.
Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Characteristic traits of this family are the restriction of their pollen-carrying structure to the ventral surface of the abdomen, and their typically elongated labrum. Megachilid genera are most commonly known as mason bees and leafcutter bees, reflecting the materials from which they build their nest cells ; a few collect plant or animal hairs and fibers, and are called carder bees, while others use plant resins in nest construction and are correspondingly called resin bees. All species feed on nectar and pollen, but a few are kleptoparasites, feeding on pollen collected by other megachilid bees. Parasitic species do not possess scopae. The motion of Megachilidae in the reproductive structures of flowers is energetic and swimming-like; this agitation releases large amounts of pollen.
Halictidae is the second-largest family of bees with nearly 4,500 species. They are commonly called sweat bees, as they are often attracted to perspiration. Halictid species are an extremely diverse group that can vary greatly in appearance. These bees occur all over the world and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Usually dark-colored and often metallic, halictids are found in various sizes, colors and patterns. Several species are all or partly green and a few are red, purple, or blue. A number of them have yellow markings, especially the males, which commonly have yellow faces, a pattern widespread among the various families of bees. The family is one of many with short tongues and is best distinguished by the arcuate basal vein found on the wing. Females in this family tend to be larger than the males. They are the group for which the term 'eusocial' was first coined by entomologist, Suzanne Batra.
Mason bee is a name now commonly used for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae. Mason bees are named for their habit of using mud or other "masonry" products in constructing their nests, which are made in naturally occurring gaps such as between cracks in stones or other small dark cavities. When available, some species preferentially use hollow stems or holes in wood made by wood-boring insects.
Vespula vulgaris, known as the common wasp, is a species found in regions that include the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, India, China, New Zealand and Australia. It is sometimes known in English as the European wasp, but the same name is used for the species Vespula germanica or German wasp. In 2010, the ostensible Vespula vulgaris wasps in North America were found to be a different species, Vespula alascensis.
Osmia lignaria, commonly known as the orchard mason bee or blue orchard bee, is a megachilid bee that makes nests in natural holes and reeds, creating individual cells for its brood that are separated by mud dividers. Unlike carpenter bees, it cannot drill holes in wood. O. lignaria is a common species used for early spring fruit bloom in the United States and Canada, though a number of other Osmia species are cultured for use in pollination.
Hylaeus is a large and diverse cosmopolitan genus within the bee family Colletidae. This genus is also known as the yellow-faced bees or masked bees. This genus is the only truly globally distributed colletid, occurring on all continents except Antarctica.
Philanthus gibbosus, the hump-backed beewolf, is a species of bee-hunting wasp and is the most common and widespread member of the genus in North America. P. gibbosus is of the order Hymenoptera and the genus Philanthus. It is native to the Midwestern United States and the western Appalachians. P. gibbosus are often observed to visit flowers and other plants in search of insect prey to feed their young. The prey that P. gibbosus catches is then coated in a layer of pollen and fed to the young wasps.
Mass provisioning is a form of parental investment in which an adult insect, most commonly a hymenopteran such as a bee or wasp, stocks all the food for each of her offspring in a small chamber before she lays the egg. This behavior is common in both solitary and eusocial bees, though essentially absent in eusocial wasps.
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.
The alkali bee, Nomia melanderi, is a ground-nesting bee native to deserts and semi-arid desert basins of the western United States. It was described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1906. While solitary, these bees nest near each other and can form extremely dense aggregations in areas with favorable conditions.
Megachile campanulae, known as the bellflower resin bee, is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae. Described in 1903, these solitary bees are native to eastern North America. Studies in 2013 placed them among the first insect species to use synthetic materials for making nests. They are considered mason bees, which is a common descriptor of bees in several families, including Megachilidae. Within the genus Megachile, frequently also referred to as leafcutter bees, M. campanulae is a member of the subgenus Chelostomoides, which do not construct nests from cut leaves, but rather from plant resins and other materials. Females lay eggs in nests constructed with individual cell compartments for each egg. Once hatched, the eggs progress through larval stages and subsequently will overwinter as pupae. The bees are susceptible to parasitism from several other bee species, which act as brood parasites. They are medium-sized bees and the female adults are typically larger than the males. They are important pollinators of numerous native plant species throughout their range.
Megachile aurifrons is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae. It was described by Frederick Smith in 1853.
Pison spinolae, commonly known as mason wasp, is a solitary wasp of the family Crabronidae, found throughout New Zealand.
Augochlorella is a genus in the bee family Halictidae, commonly called sweat bees. They display metallic coloration, ranging from reddish to gold to bluish green, as is typical for other genera in the tribe Augochlorini.
Lasioglossum sordidum, also referred to as the small native bee, is one of the smallest native bees found in New Zealand.
Centris analis is a solitary, oil-collecting bee with a geographical range extending from Brazil to Mexico. C. analis is a small, fast-flying bee with an average head width of 3.21mm and 3.54mm for males and females, respectively. While most species of the genus Centris create burrows for nesting, C. analis and other species of the subgenus Heterocentris build nests in pre-existing cavities rather than in the ground. C. analis is a pollinator of many plant species, especially of those in the family Malpighiaceae, which has encouraged its application in acerola orchards.
Bee hotels are a type of insect hotel for solitary pollinator bees, or wasps, providing them rest and shelter. Typically, these bees would nest in hollow plant stems, holes in dead wood, or other natural cavities; a bee hotel attempts to mimic this structure by using a bunch of hollow reeds or holes drilled in wood, among other methods. Bee hotels can possibly support native bee and wasp populations by adding nesting resources to a habitat. However, some activists have criticized bee hotels for being ineffective at rehabilitating native bee populations and possibly harming them by providing homes to invasive species and creating grounds where bees can transmit diseases to one another.
