Native Bees

The content of this page was developed by Laurel Treviño (UT Austin) and Margarita López Uribe, Assistant Professor of Entomology at Pennsylvania State University. Educational resources linked to this page were developed by Laurel Treviño. You may print the linked PDFs for education and conservation purposes. Photo copyrights apply. For questions or comments, please contact Laurel (see bottom of page).

Pollination Services

Out of 20,000+ bee species that have been described worldwide, approximately 4,000 inhabit North America (Northern Mexico, U.S., Canada) and ~1000 live in Texas. Colonies of the single species of Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) were brought to the American continent in the 1600’s by Europeans who kept apiaries for honey, wax, and mead. Indigenous Americans had harvested honey from several tropical native bee species.

(Native bee, Apis mellifera. Photo: Kathy Keatley Garvey, The University of California Regents).

Beyond honey and wax, bees provide important ecosystem services by pollinating ~87% of wild plants. Bees are key pollinators that visit flowers for nectar and pollen and facilitate pollination by consistently transferring pollen between plants of the same species (floral fidelity). Approximately 30% of fruit, vegetable and nut crop species rely on pollinators to some extent to set fruit in farms and orchards. That means, every third morsel of the food in our diets comes from pollination activities. Bees work hard to collect nectar and pollen for their own food, but they share the fruits of their labor with us, literally…

A drab world without bees…

A balanced breakfast thanks to bees & other pollinators!

“breakfast” photos created by Laura Russo & used with her permission

(Pollination Services.pdf)

Foraging bees travel far beyond their nesting habitat to look for food. Flight ranges depend to some extent on body size, which in turn depends on the bee species. Bees can fly from 500 meters to a kilometer away from their nest, but some tiny tropical bees can fly up to 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) to gather pollen! Bees agility helps them reach the hidden anthers of bluebonnet and sage flowers by standing on the keel petal to open the flower.

       

green sweat bee (discoverlife.org); squash bees (T’ai H. Roulston); bumble bee (Charles Schurch Lewallen)

Most bees forage and feed by day but crepuscular bees can see in dim light at dusk and dawn. Three tiny ‘simple eyes’ on a bee’s head see shades of gray while two large compound eyes see color. Do you see 3 ocelli on the sweat bee’s head? Bees can see in visible and ultraviolet light spectrums, while humans see only visible light. While we see a plain yellow flower (left), bees may see a blue flower with nectar guides (shown in UV light). In their quest for food, bees are attracted to colorful aromatic flowers by sight (eyes) and smell (antennae). This long-horned bee’s antennae sense surrounding aromas.

    

(Halictus poeyi, USGS Native Bee Inventory Monitoring Lab)                               (Sam Droege)

Generalist bees obtain pollen from many plant families. Bumble bees, which tend to be generalists, as most bee species, can shake the pollen from flowers by clinging to the anthers and vibrating their body, which produces sonication or buzzing on a C note.

Specialist bees tend to obtain pollen from a narrow group of plants (a species, genus or family), unless environmental stressors change their feeding habits. Squash bees prefer squash flowers, while cactus bees prefer prickly pear cactus, and sunflower bees prefer…

Nesting females make and provision nests. They subdivide cavities into compartments where they lay a single egg in each cell. They usually seal the nest with leaves or mud or plug the hole with their own body! Native bees can nest in wild-lands, orchards, farms or gardens. North American native bees are ~70% ground-nesters and ~30% cavity-nesters.

Ground Nesting (pdf) bees dig holes with their front legs and mouth. They can make tunnels more than a foot deep. Sweat bees and digger bees make level entrances, while sunflower bees build chimney turrets. Bumble bees can nest on the ground under grass thatch, while other bees must dig deep underground to reach a more stable micro-environment. After smoothing the walls with their underbelly, ‘cellophane’ bees apply secretions with their tongue for a waterproof lining.

Cavity Nesting (pdf) bees use their mouth parts to carve holes in soft wood or to retrofit rock crevices.  Leaf-cutter bees line and partition cavities with pieces of leaves or flowers (top left, Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC). Mason bees chew mud to plaster and plug holes with the mastic (top right, Scott Famous). Small carpenter bees carve holes in the pith of plant stems (bottom left, Alain C.), while large carpenter bees drill horizontal tunnels through soft wood (bottom right, Sean McCann).

Texas Native Bee Foraging & Nesting.pdf

Watch leaf-cutter bees making nests inside bamboo cavities! 

Sociality is defined mostly by nesting habits. 90% of native bees are solitary, that is, a single female makes and provisions her nest. Solitary bees can aggregate nests in one area but they each stock their own nest with food. Females may also share a common entrance while each one provides for her own larvae in their cells. In semi-social bees, like bumble bees, individuals of the same age (cohort) divide the labor, foraging and caring for young sisters in annual colonies. Social tropical bees form communal nests from Central Mexico to South America where females feed nectar and pollen to their developing young. Native bees generally lay few eggs, so the larvae survival rates and adult population size shift seasonally depending on resources and disturbances.

Melipona quadrifasciata (Apidae) – Margarita Lopez Uribe

Bee life cycles involve complete metamorphosis (jpg) with four developmental stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Females lay an egg on pollen loaves or near liquid food they prepare for developing larvae to eat during their weeks-long development. Adult bees can live about a month (mason, mining bee), a year (bumble bee), or three years (large carpenter, western honey bee) depending on the species and sex.

 

 

 

 

Egg & larva on pollen balls (Dennis Briggs) 
Pupa in ground brood cell (Robbin Thorp)
Adult mining bee (John Ascher)

Native bee habitat must include resources for food and shelter (pdf) & (Spanish) 

To conserve native bees we must protect habitat for young and adult bees year round. Natural bee habitat includes patches of bare ground, rock or wood cavities and thatch for nesting. For ground-nesters, protect soil from erosion and don’t compact mud with heavy machinery. For cavity-nesters, leave snags, fallen tree logs, and grass thatch. Do land stewardship and gardening activities before bees emerge from their nests in early spring. To ensure bee food sources, augment locally adapted, native plants like wildflowers and bunch-grasses. Spring blooms (herbs and trees) feed hungry bees, asters maintain bee populations through hot summers, and fall blossoms help females provision their nests. Diverse and healthy bee populations depend on diverse and abundant plant communities.

Native plants are essential for bee larvae who digest their pollen readily. Native bees prefer native flowers to non-native ones. Bee life cycles are synchronized with native plants that flower during bee foraging seasons. If you use local native plants in your landscape, native pollinators will find them!

Here’s our top ten list of Texas Prairie Plants for Native Bees.

A more comprehensive list of native pollinator plants is provided by The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: www.wildflower.org/project/pollinator-conservation

Brackenridge Field Lab, UT

BFL meadow & woodland habitats Larry Gilbert photo

BFL meadow & woodland (L.Gilbert)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woodlands and prairies at the UT Brackenridge Field Lab, sustain more than 200 native pollinator species on 80 acres. Here are the most common pollinators at BFL(.pdf)

Native bees thrive in open prairies, mixed woodlands, farms and gardens where constellations of native plants flower in a succession of colors. To help conserve and monitor pollinator habitat, see Naturalists|Citizen Scientists.

How Do You ID a Bee?

Like all insects, a bee’s body has three regions: head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax has three pairs of legs and two pairs of membranous wings (a trait of the Order Hymenoptera). The segmented abdomen may have colored bands, and branched hair covers some or all of their body.

Many bees are tiny and look like wasps or flies. To distinguish them, observe their shape, hair, wings, and what they eat!

 

Bee, Wasp or Fly?

  • Bees are mostly herbivores; they eat only nectar and pollen from flowers
  • Wasps are carnivores; they mostly eat insects but also drink nectar from flowers
  • Flies are mostly detrivores; they eat decaying plants or animals but also blood or nectar
bee15 (1)

Margarita Lopez Uribe

  • Bees/wasps: 4 wings, long elbowed antennae. Flies: 2 wings, stubby straight antennae
  • Bees/flies have rounded bodies; wasps have long narrow bodies with pointy abdomens
  • Bees are hairier than wasps or flies and only bees have branched hairs that carry pollen

Diversity

Out of 4,000 bee species native to North America, more than 800 have been identified in Texas. The Jha Lab has studied pollinators from 60+ sites in Texas. Meet the six bee families in Texas and the American continent.

Bees are smaller than rice grains, the size of pinto beans, or bigger than almonds.  Color and ‘hair’ location are used to identify bees, which can be very colorful!

Texas Native Bees.pdf

  • (Apidae) Bumble bees, large & small carpenters, stingless, cactus, long-horned bees
  • Plasterer bees (Colletidae) chew leaves or mud into spit balls to line their nests
  • Miner bees (Andrenidae) dig underground tunnels with a chimney entrance
  • Sweat bees (Halictidae) are mostly tiny with a metallic sheen; they lick sweat for salt
  • Oil-collector bees (Melittidae) collect plant oils in dry climates
  • Leaf-cutters (Megachilidae) use mega mouth-parts to cut & carry leaves to their nest

Can you recognize native bees in your Central Texas garden?   

What pollinators live near you? Texas Pollinator Guides & Texas Bee ID Guide

Celebrate World Bee Day on May 2oth every year, or better yet, every day!

Native Plant Society of Texas http://npsot.org/wp/story/2012/2422/ , Pollinator Partnership , TPWD helpful guides ,  TPWD Native Pollinator Management , USDA CRP CP-42 Pollinator Enhancement , Xerces Society , Wildflower.org pollinator-conservation

Page authors Laurel Treviño and Margarita López Uribe and Jha Lab PI, Shalene Jha
 thank the following organizations for supporting the development of public outreach materials
Horned Lizard License Plate Grant of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
The National Science Foundation
The U.S. Army
Some image copyrights apply. Photo use is permitted for educational purposes: (CC) Creative Commons – Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike, © Copyright protected. Photographer credits listed in order of photo appearance by section in the text above.
(CC) Alain C. www.flickr.com, Small carpenter bee (Ceratina sp.) drills hole in plant stem
(CC) Bob Peterson, Large carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica)
(CC) Diane Wilson, 2010, http://bugguide.net/node/view/422934/bgpage Nocturnal Lasioglossum
(CC) http://commons.wikimedia.org; en.wikipedia.org; flowers seen in visible and UV light
(CC) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Megachile-pjt.jpg, Leaf-cutter Megachile
(CC) Bumble bee wildflower USPS stamp, USDA Forest Service  http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/news/2007.shtml
(CC) Lynette Schimming, 2008, www.bugguide.net, Hesperapis sp. Miner bee males
(CC) Sean McCann, 2006, http: tolweb.org Eastern carpenter bee Xylocopa virginica; www.eol.org
(CC) Ted Kropiewnicki, 2009, Metallic blue bee (Native Bee Diversity section)
(CC) Tom Van Devender, MABA, www.madrean.org, Diadasia sp. (‘fuzzy’ bee on cactus flower)
(CC) T’ai H. Roulston, 2014, www.virginia.edu/blandy/blandy_web/biota/bees Augochlorella aurata (gold sweat bee); Colletes latitarsis (tomatillo flower)
(CC) Nancy Adamson, Peponapis pruinosa (several squash bees in flower)
(CC) USGS Native Bee Inventory Monitoring Lab 2012, http://commons.wikimedia.org Halictus poeyi (Sweat bee ocelli)
© Bruce Lund, 2012, www.bugguide.net, digger Diadasia enavata; Andrenid bee in tunnel
© Charles Schurch Lewallen 2005 (UF/IFAS) http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in207, American bumble bee, Bombus pensylvanicus
© Debbi Brusco, 2008, http://bugguide.net/node/view/182479 Miner (Hesperapis sp.)
© Dennis Briggs & Robbin Thorp, www.vernalpools.org/Thorp Andrena Life Cycle
© Gail Starr 2011 www.discoverlife.org, Sunflower/cactus bee, Diadasia enavata
© Hadel Go 2011, www.discoverlife.org, small carpenter bee, Ceratina calcarata
© John Ascher, 2006-2010, www.discoverlife.orgDianthidium ulkei; (fuzzy Megachilid -Diversity); Andrena (metamorphosis -adult)
© Kathy Keatley Garvey, 2014, Regents of the University of California, flower with honeybee & native bee
© Laurence Packer, York Univ. wikimedia.org, Hairless blue, carpenter Ceratina calcarata; American bumble bee, Bombus pensylvanicus; www.padil.gov.au
© Sam Droege, www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml, long-horned Svastra petulca
© www.discoverlife.org, Agapostemon angelicus male
(CC) Lawrence Gilbert, meadow & woodland at Brackenridge Field Laboratory
(CC) Brackenridge Field Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin
(CC) www.discoverlife.org Agapostemon
(CC) Alain C. www.flickr.com, Small carpenter bee (Ceratina sp.) drills hole in plant stem
(CC) Bob Peterson, Large carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica)
(CC) Charles Schurch Lewallen, 1998 http://edis.ifas.ufl.eduBombus griseocollis
(CC) http://standingoutinmyfield.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/ Agapostemon green sweat bee peeking
(CC) *BJO http://www.flickr.com/photos/32551349@N03/8140583553 Bumble bee exits nest
(CC) T. Murray, digger bee
(CC) T’ai H. Roulston, 2014, www.virginia.edu/blandy/blandy_web/biota/bees Peponapis pruinosa
(CC) Melipona quadrifasciata (social bees) image provided by Margarita Lopez Uribe
(CC) Scott Famous, DoD, www.bugwood.org, Blue orchard Osmia lignaria; www.aragriculture.org, Mason bees
© Bruce Lund 2012, www.bugguide.net, digger (chimney) bee Diadasia enavata, (Andrenidae)
© Kathy Keatley Garvey, 2014, Regents of the University of California, Diadasia, leaf-cutters
© www.discoverlife.org, Agapostemon angelicus male
Laurel Treviño Murphy – Outreach Program Coordinator – Jha Lab
ltrevino@austin.utexas.edu
205 W. 24th Street
BIO Labs 401
The University of Texas at Austin
Department of Integrative Biology
College of Natural Sciences
Austin, TX 78712