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Other bees

Mason, miner, carpenter, leafcutter, sweat and hive bees.

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6 common species
Bombus terrestris/lucorum
Bombus lapidarius
Bombus pratorum
Bombus pascuorum
Bombus hortorum
Less common species
Cuckoo bumblebees
North American species
Bombus impatiens
N. American cuckoos
Is it a bumblebee?
Other bees
Looks like a bumblebee

Recently I've been getting a lot of e-mails from people wanting to know about bees that are obviously not bumblebees, but may resemble them. Usually the writers are concerned that these bees are causing some damage to their property, or are a danger to children and pets, and naturally they want to know what to do.

Almost all of them are classed as solitary bees, i.e. the female doesn't stick around after laying the first batch of eggs and providing a food supply (pollen and nectar), so the nest size is tiny. However some do nest communally either close together or using a common entrance hole, making it look a little like they are social bees.

These bees are generally less hairy than bumblebees and usually, but not always, smaller. The colour and pattern of their hairs varies, but is rarely the yellow and black seen in the commoner bumblebee. They fall into four main groups, miners, carpenters, masons and leafcutters.

Mining bees.

These bees generally nest in the ground, often in paths or lawns, and some of the lawn nesting species nest communally. The entrance to their burrows are often marked by a small mound of soil (see right). These bees are good pollinators of economically important plants such as fruit trees and alfalfa. In reasonable numbers these bees won't harm your lawn. There are about 100 species of mining bee in Britain, most resemble honey bees, but are smaller in size. Their burrows can be 60 cm deep. The clump of pollen takes the mother bee 6 - 7 journeys to gather. And each load is around half her body weight. Once the pollen clump is the right size she lays an egg on it.

diagram of mining bee nest showing the general shape
group of mining bee nests, Colletes sp. in a sandy bank in north eastern France

The photograph on the left was taken in north-eastern France at the end of summer. It shows a number of nests made by mining bees, probably Colletes sp. Some of the nests were still being used, some had been taken over by spiders and others appeared empty. It is quite common for Colletes sp. to nest in dense aggregations like this where the ground is suitable. They cement the grains of sand together with an oral secretion plastered on the inside of the cell. Often this secretion will contain a fungicide.

There are 8 Colletes sp. in Britain. The burrows are usually less than 30 cm deep, and are dug in sandy soil. The cell at the end of the burrow is filled with honey.

Carpenter bees.

These bees have powerful mandibles (jaws) that can dig tunnels in wood. Xylocopa violacea (below), a huge (20-23 mm long), black bee found in central and southern Europe nests in dead wood and digs a tunnel up to 30 cm long containing 10-15 cells. The photograph below right is of a Xylocopa violacea hole. This bee holds the record for laying the largest egg of any insect. Carpenters are found in many parts of the world, and there is one very similar to this commonly seen in the USA. Naturally a large number of carpenter nests in the structural support of a building will cause some damage, but this is unusual. One behaviour can be alarming though. The males compete with other males to mate with females. This involves them chasing males away and chasing females to mate. During these chases they zoom about crashing into windows, people and anything else in their path. Humans in the way of all this may think they are under attack, they are not, they are just in the way. Males may also hang around waiting for adult females to emerge, and again they behave in what might seem to us as an aggressive way, by chasing other males away and investigating anything that gets near the exit hole. This something may be your head, you

Drawing of carpenter bee tunnel showing cell divisions, pollen clump and egg
Xylocopa Violacea, carpenter bee adult on flower, taken in Northern France

will be buzzed around and checked out to see if you are a rival that needs chasing away or a female that needs mating. However there is no danger as males cannot sting, so like much male mating behaviour it's all bluster and show.

carpenter bee tunnel entrance in old wood in central Paris
Mason bee Anthophora sp.

Mason bees.

These bees will nest in almost any cavity which they can modify in shape with earth or other materials to suit their requirements. Some species specialise in nesting inside snail shells, and there is a tiny species that nests in the holes left by wood worm beetles. The European species Osmia rufa is often found nesting in old nail holes and in the mortar of old walls. Others, like Anthophora retusa, on the left construct cells using clay, sand, earth and chalk, and earth mixed with wood - whatever is at hand. In towns their nests can often be found between two bricks in walls. The nest on the right has only two cells, if space permitted there would be more. Anthophora retusa looks like a small, dark bumblebee, but she has orange-coloured hairs on her hind legs. In the UK this bee appears in the early spring and flies until July, it is an important fruit pollinator.

Anthophora retusa nest, mason bee nest

Leafcutting bees.

These are the bees that cut holes and semi-circles out of rose leaves, and other leaves, to line the cells in their nest. They nest in a variety of places, in the ground, under stones, in cavities in wood and stone, pithy plant stems, and in dead wood. In some countries, the US, France and New Zealand these bees are raised to pollinate crops.

The female bee places a supply of honey and pollen in the cell; lays an egg on this, then seals the cell and builds the next one in the cylindrical hollow. Once she has sealed the last cell she goes off and dies. When the new adult bees are ready to emerge they eat their way through the leaf parts. The last egg laid is the first to hatch. The last eggs laid are usually males, and they hang around on nearby flowers waiting for the females to emerge.

Megachile centucularis, also known as the upholsterer bee and the rose leaf cutter is on the right, and is found right across Eurasia and North America. In the UK they fly from June to August. The female uses rose, birch, ash and many other leaves as long as they have a serrated edge. The tunnel diameter is 7 -8 mm, and 9 - 12 pieces of leaf are needed for each cell. The cells are thimble shaped inside, and each is sealed with 4 - 12 circular pieces of leaf. There are usually 6 - 10 cells per nest. Each cell takes the bee around 6 - 8 hours of work to construct, provision with honey and pollen and to lay an egg. She does not have pollen baskets but carries pollen back to the nest in the bright orange brushes on the underside of her abdomen. At night she rests in the nest entrance facing outwards and will bite anything that tries to enter. The eggs hatch in 12 - 16 days, feed then spin their cocoon 17 -18 days later. Fecal pellets help stick the outer layer of the cocoon to the inner leaf layer of the cell.

Sweat bees.

These are in the Halictidae family. Most are small - medium sized, and as with all bees feed on pollen and nectar, however they get their common name from their habit of licking the perspiration off human skin. Most species are solitary, but there are a few social nesting species.

Differences between bumblebees and honey bees.

There are some very important differences between the bumblebee life cycle and the honeybee life cycle. There is no mouth-to-mouth exchange of food between adult bumblebees, nor do adults groom each other or the queen as is seen in honeybees. As yet no equivalent to the honeybee "queen substance" has been found; in honeybee hives workers licking the queen and each other pass the "queen substance" throughout the hive, and this pheromonal control enables the queen to maintain dominance. Bumblebee queens appear to maintain dominance purely by aggressive behaviour.

With bumblebees the colony is started anew each year with only the new queens surviving the winter. Whereas the honeybee hive continues year after year, even though there may have been a change of queens during the summer. During the cold winter months the honey bee workers cluster around the queen deep in the hive to maintain a high enough temperature to survive, they also feed on their store of honey. So when the weather warms enough for them to forage there are already a large number of workers. Honeybee queens never forage, they live their lives inside the hive only emerging to found a new colony when they swarm with a full compliment of workers. Bumblebees in temperate climates never swarm, however there are a few tropical species that initiate new colonies by swarming. For more on honeybees click here

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leaf cutter bees, Megachile centuncularis

Getting drunk and falling down

Coryanthes sp., the south American bucket orchid tree epiphyte opens its flowers in the early morning and drips fluid from two glands into its bucket. The fluid gives off a scent attractive to male bees. The male bees arrive and rub off some waxy substance from the flower. Many male bees are attracted and there is some fighting and pushing, also the aromatic fluid seems to have a slightly intoxicating effect. The upshot of the crowding, excitement and intoxication is that a bee will eventually fall into the bucket of fluid. There is only one way out of the bucket and that is through an escape tunnel. At the exit the tunnel closes, gripping the body of the male bee while gluing two pollen sacs to its back. The bee is trapped for ten minutes, just the amount of time it takes for the glue to dry. When other bees fall into the bucket they are allowed to pass through the tunnel unhindered, but if one is carrying pollen sacs on his back the sacs will be pulled off. This pollination is species specific, i.e. that plant can only be pollinated by a particular species of bee. This is a precarious position to be in if something happens to the pollinator.