![]() ![]() Now that you are a bee and bee mimic expert, try your hand at identifying these insects. Bees are vegetarians and only eat pollen and nectar from flowers. Certain wasps make paper nests you will find hanging from a tree or building, while bees do not.Ī final clue: If your insect is eating another insect, it may be a fly or wasp. Wasps also tend to have slender waists and they will never have pollen-carrying hairs. ![]() However, wasps are smooth and almost hairless, while bees are generally covered with hair on their bodies and legs. Some, but not all flies are easy to spot because their eyes meet in the center at the top of their head.Ī wasp has 4 wings, chewing mouthparts, a sting, and long antennae like a bee. They have sucking mouth parts, without the jaw-like mouthparts of a bee, and their antennae are not long and slender like a bee, but short and stubby or feathery. A fly has only 2 wings, while a bee has 4. But don't despair! Simple characteristics will allow you to decide if what you are looking at is indeed a bee.Ĭommon bee mimics are flies and wasps. While they are not bees, they may resemble them in appearance. Some insects that you will see visiting flowers are bee mimics. Some are especially attracted to asters, sunflowers and daisies. Pollen-carrying hairs on rear legs may be very long. Long horned bee ( Melissodes spp.) 8–16mmīlack body covered in dense pale or dark hairs. Nests are burrowed into wood, often in roof eaves.įly fast and erratically like a hummingbird. Similar body shape to bumble bee, but abdomen shiny and mostly lacking hair. Large Carpenter bee ( Xylocopa spp.) 15–23mmīlack body with light or dark hairs. Some are attracted to the salt in your sweat. Nest in the soil, solitary to communal nesters. Two forms: (1) bright metallic green or (2) black/brown with light bands of hair on the abdomen. Common nesting locationsĬolonies nest underground, commonly in old rodent burrows.īumble bees pollinate in cool, cloudy weather when most bees are at home. They cut circular pieces from leaves which are used to line their nests.īlack body, extensively covered with black and yellow hairs on all body segments. Solitary, but nest in aggregations in above-ground pre-existing holes, natural or artificial. Head is as broad as the thorax with large mouthparts used to cut leaves. Leaf cutting bee ( Megachile spp.) 7–15mmīlack body with light or dark hairs. Bees swarm to divide the colony.Īdditional ID features that may be seen with the aid of a hand lens Head heart-shaped.Ĭolonies nest in artificial hives, in the open and in cavities. Light to dark brown body with pale and dark hairs in bands on abdomen. Some carry pollen in an almost hairless, flattened pollen basket on the rear legs. Special pollen-carrying hairs unique to female bees resemble dense broom bristles, and are commonly found on the rear legs or the underside of the abdomen. Last is the abdomen, which for female bees ends in a sting. The thorax is the middle segment where the wings and legs attach. The head is where large multi-faceted eyes, long slender antennae, and cutting mouthparts are found. ![]()
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