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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.
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 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.
Leioproctus, the hairy colletid bee, is a genus in the plaster bee family Colletidae. Its members are primarily found in Australasia and temperate South America, and include the most common native bees in New Zealand.
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.
Epeolus is a genus of cuckoo bees in the family Apidae. They are often known as variegated cuckoo-bees. The species is uncommon to rare, and has strong patterns of black and white on the thorax and abdomen. These patterns are made of tiny fat hairs lying flush with the integument or "skin" of the bee. It is easily mistaken for Triepeolus, but is almost always smaller.
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.
References
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- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Vachal, Josef (1903). "Étude sur les Halictus d'Amérique". Miscellanea Entomologica. 11: 89–104.