Carpenter bees are species in the genus Xylocopa of the subfamily Xylocopinae. The genus includes some 500 bees in 31 subgenera. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo. The main exceptions are species in the subgenus Proxylocopa, which dig nesting tunnels in suitable soil.
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.
The genus Halictus is a large assemblage of bee species in the family Halictidae. The genus is divided into 15 subgenera, some of dubious monophyly, containing over 200 species, primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. Most species are black or dark brown, sometimes metallic greenish-tinted, with apical whitish abdominal bands on the terga.
The sweat bee genus Lasioglossum is the largest of all bee genera, containing over 1800 species in numerous subgenera worldwide. They are highly variable in size, coloration, and sculpture; among the more unusual variants, some are cleptoparasites, some are nocturnal, and some are oligolectic. Most Lasioglossum species nest in the ground, but some nest in rotten logs.
The cosmopolitan bee genus Ceratina, often referred to as small carpenter bees, is the sole lineage of the tribe Ceratinini, and is not closely related to the more familiar carpenter bees. The genus presently contains over 300 species in 23 subgenera. They make nests in dead wood, stems, or pith, and while many are solitary, a number are subsocial, with mothers caring for their larvae, and in a few cases where multiple females are found in a single nest, daughters or sisters may form very small, weakly eusocial colonies. One species is unique for having both social and asocial populations, Ceratina australensis, which exhibits all of the pre-adaptations for successful group living. This species is socially polymorphic with both solitary and social nests collected in sympatry. Social colonies in that species consist of two foundresses, one contributing both foraging and reproductive effort and the second which remains at the nest as a passive guard. Cooperative nesting provides no overt reproductive benefits over solitary nesting in this population, although brood survival tends to be greater in social colonies. Maternal longevity, subsociality and bivoltine nesting phenology in this species favour colony formation, while dispersal habits and offspring longevity may inhibit more frequent social nesting in this and other ceratinines.
Amegilla is a large genus of bees in the tribe Anthophorini. It has been split into many subgenera, including Asaropoda, Micramegilla,Notomegilla and Zonamegilla.
Melipona is a genus of stingless bees, widespread in warm areas of the Neotropics, from Sinaloa and Tamaulipas (México) to Tucumán and Misiones (Argentina). About 70 species are known. The largest producer of honey from Melipona bees in Mexico is in the state of Yucatán where bees are studied at an interactive park called "Bee Planet" which is within the Cuxtal Ecological Reserve.
In biology, Lipotriches is a large genus of sweat bees in the family Halictidae, distributed widely throughout the Eastern Hemisphere though absent from Europe. There are nearly 200 species in 9 subgenera. They commonly have prominent bands of hair on the margins of the metasomal segments.
Thyreus is an Old World genus of bees, one of many that are commonly known as cuckoo bees, or cloak-and-dagger bees, and are kleptoparasites of other species of bees, mostly in the genus Amegilla. They all have strongly contrasting patterns of coloration – three species from the Sydney region, Thyreus nitidulus, T. lugubris, and T. caeruleopunctatus are bright blue and black.
Sphecodes is a genus of cuckoo bees from the family Halictidae, the majority of which are black and red in colour and are colloquially known as blood bees. Sphecodes bees are kleptoparasitic on other bees, especially bees in the genera Lasioglossum, Halictus and Andrena. The adults consume nectar, but because they use other bees' provisions to feed their offspring they do not collect pollen.
Dialictus is a subgenus of sweat bees belonging to the genus Lasioglossum. Most of the members of this subgenus have a metallic appearance, while some are non-metallic. There are over 630 species worldwide. They are commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere and are found in abundance in North America. Members of this subgenus also have very diverse forms of social structure making them model organisms for studying the social behavior of bees.
Halictini is a tribe of sweat bees in the sub-family Halictinae.
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.
Protandrena is a genus of mining bees in the family Andrenidae. Depending upon whose definition of the genus one follows, there are anywhere from 50 to 180 described species in Protandrena; traditional classifications recognize 7 subgenera, some of which are sometimes elevated to genus rank, and other classifications place many of these species in the related genus Pseudopanurgus (e.g.), leaving Protandrena with a much smaller constituency. In the most inclusive definition, they are found from Canada through Argentina. However, there is current disagreement whether the Protandrena in South America belong to different genera, in which case the genus extends only as far south as Panama. They are solitary bees, but some species nest in aggregations. They prefer to nest in sunny areas with sparse vegetation. The underground nests have cells lined with a chemical substance. This "wallpaper" acts as a barrier between fungi and bacteria. The eggs hatch, the larvae develop, and then overwinter as mature larvae with hardened skin. They are primarily active from May to October, but have been noted to be active in April in the region six of the United States.
Homalictus is a subgenus of bees in the genus Lasioglossum subfamily Halictinae of the family Halictidae. They are found in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, east across the Pacific to the Mariana Islands, Samoa, Fiji and are most prevalent in Australia.
Lasioglossum halictoides, also known as the Lasioglossum (Australictus) davide , is a species of bee in the subgenus Australictus of the genus Lasioglossum, in the Halictidae family. It was first described in 1910 by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell as Halictus davidis, from a specimen collected at Kuranda, Queensland.
