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  Deserts. Common. Diggers.     Name: ‘The Pallid Bee’ or ‘The Digger Bee’ (no official common name) Family: Apidae (with: carpenter, honey, bumble bees) States: Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada Centris pallida are known for their vibrant, yellow-green eyes and pale fuzz as they buzz around desert palo verde – females are also known for the lovable ‘chaps’ on their rear legs which help them gather pollen. C. pallida are some of the best bees at maintaining a stable body temperature; they are often found within 2 degrees Celsius of lethal overheating! C. pallida females dig long tunnels to lay a single egg Read more…

Many people are afraid of bees (and wasps) because of their stingers – but not all of our buzzing buddies actually sting. Which bees aren’t so sharp? 1. Male bees (of any species) – A stinger is a modified version of the egg-laying part of a female bee’s body, called the ovipositor. Since males were never meant to lay eggs, they never evolved a stinger. Despite not being able to sting, many male bees will buzz loudly and curl the end of their abdomen towards anything that grabs them. This mimics a female’s stinging position and the behavior is scary Read more…

This past summer, you and I probably shared a similar bee experience: outside on a hot day, little metallic bees stuck to your bare arm, lapping up sweat from your skin. These bees, called sweat bees, are from the Halictidae family and are very common. Between the US and Canada, there are approximately 520 known species of these shiny, and often colorful (like this Agapostemon texanus), insects. But why do they drink sweat? Salt is necessary for egg production in insects (a female butterfly can lose more than 50% of the salt she’s born with in just one egg complement) and human Read more…

  Generalist. Widespread. Solitary.           Name: ‘The Green Sweat Bee’ (there are several) Family: Halicitinae (with: other sweat bees, alkali bees) States: Most likely all except Hawaii and Alaska   Agapostemon texanus belongs to one of North America’s most striking genera – all Agapostemon males and females have beautiful, metallic blue/green coloration. Males and females of Agapostemon species look very different (a phenomena called sexual dimorphism). Male abdomens are yellow-and-black/brown striped while female abdomens are consistently metallic and blue-green. Of all the Agapostemon, A. texanus is the most widespread, appearing from Costa Rica to Southern Canada. In the US, it Read more…

Think quick: Bee! For most of us, a highly social hive of buzzing honey bees come to mind. But this is actually only a tiny sliver of the social structural pie. Here are some (but not all) other types of organization: Solitary: Most bees are solitary, where a single female makes her nest alone. Solitary bees lay their eggs in small cells on top of a bed of food – the egg later hatches and feeds itself. Adults typically emerge from their cells around the same time, forage, lay their eggs, and then die while larvae/pupae wait underground for the next Read more…