Hi, I live most of my life alone but sometimes I like to be alone with others in my tribe. This is why you can find me nesting in huge aggregations with other bees like me. We all dig our own holes in the ground (like the one you see here) and collect our own pollen provisions, but we dig our nests a respectable couple of inches away from each other.

Me and my sister are just two of the 50,000 girls that keep our colony running. We are never going to have babies ourselves so we can dedicate time to helping our mother (the Queen) reproduce. When we were younger we were nurses, helping our baby sisters develop into grown ups like us. Now that we are older, we do most of the risky tasks such as collecting food for and defending the colony. 

Hi, we are very social like Apis, but we don’t have quite as large of colonies and we sort of start fresh every year. What I mean is that my Queen will start a new colony once a year and produce between 50-500 workers. The Queen puts off a smell (or pheromone) that suppresses all of our ovaries so she can be the only one to reproduce. Another cool fact about us is that we do “buzz pollination” which is a super efficient way of pollinating important crops like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and raspberries just to name a few!

Hi, I go by the “small carpenter bee” because I (like Xylocopa) nest in wood! I’ll usually take it easy and nest in some pithy stems or hollow twigs, I don’t need much room. I mostly lead a solitary life, but sometimes I’ll stick around to take care of my young instead of just leaving them to fend for themselves, like some bees on this call…

Sorry I just woke up, I hope you can’t see my cactus sheets in the background. I spend most of my time pollinating only a very small group of plant species. When I’m not lounging out in the cosy cactus flowers, I am making my nest in the soil like Anthophora. My technique is a little different, I make little chimneys around my nest entrance so that water and other ground dwelling predators can’t find my babies as easily. I guess that’s why they call me a “chimney bee”.

We are known as the “long horned bees” which you can already see is a slightly misleading name because my antennae aren’t super long! We pollinate important crops such as sunflowers and other native plants in your garden. What is adorable about the males in our group is that they can be found cuddling up together in flowers. This is known as “sleeping aggregation” and a lot of male solitary bees do this because they can’t sleep in nests like us females do.

 Hi all, I know I look more wasp-like than you’re used to. I don’t really need to be as fuzzy as my colleagues because I don’t have to collect pollen myself. Similar to Xeromelecta I’m a parasitic “cuckoo bee”, but I can parasitize a wide range of other bees, not only one specialized host. My name is easy to remember because it is derived from the Greek word for “roaming” or “wandering” - which basically describes my life looking for bees to parasitize and never making a nest of my own.

So glad to be here, especially next to Anthophora because I’m admittedly a bit codependent on her. I’m known as a “digger cuckoo bee” because I will parasitize the nests of bees like Anthophora over here. Basically, I just find a nest that she made and lay my egg on the pollen she collected. Since my babies develop faster, my larva will emerge and eat her egg so that it can have the rest of the pollen for its own development.

Hey everyone, I hope you can see my shiny strong mandibles in this tiny zoom box. I go by “carpenter bee” for short because I use my mandibles to dig my burrows in wood which is not easy! You’ve probably noticed me before and maybe confused me with Bombus over there. We are both big bees, but my abdomen is much shinier than Bombus.

Hi, I’m kinda busy right now because all these other males are trying to steal my territory. I’ve been hovering around this perfect flower patch all day to find the perfect female. I’ve had to chase off males and guard it fiercely. You can probably already see that I am easy to tell apart from the female Xylocopa because I have a white mask on my face, whereas the female’s face is all black.

Hey, not many of us here. I’m a little nervous to be representing the largest group of bees in this family. But anyways we, the 1,300 species of Andrena, are all solitary and ground nesting bees which is why we are commonly called “mining bees”. One fun fact is that, unlike a lot of other bees, we have a few species that feed at dusk or in the early evening. You can tell us apart by our unmistakable vertical eyebrows.

Hi there, I have the daintiest nickname of all the bees: “fairy bee”. I am in a group that contains the world's smallest bees. I am extremely specialized and will only collect pollen from one group of flowers. Being such a specialist can be risky because if these flowers cease to exist I may also. I hope some gardeners keep me and my flower preferences in mind! 

Hi friends, we are known as the “rotund resin bee” and like all our fellow craftswomen on this call the females get resourceful building their nests. Unlike the others, they build them out of resin and don’t need to dig or find a crevice. Since I’m a male, I usually just lurk around the flowers waiting for the chance to mate with one of these hardworking females. That’s actually what I’m doing right now...

Hey I’m on my way out, but I’ll quickly introduce myself. Bees like myself are commonly called “leaf cutting bees” because we cut little pieces of leaves or flower petals to wrap our baby's food supply in. Like other solitary bees, we collect pollen and provision it for our young. My secret is wrapping that pollen in leaves to prevent drying. There are 1500 species in my group, so I can’t speak for them all, but it’s a pretty unique trick!

Hi there, I’m commonly known as a “mason bee” because instead of leaves (like my friend Megachile) I use mud or other “masonry” to house my babies. Not to brag but, we are really great at pollinating crops that you humans enjoy such as apples, blueberries, cherries and many more! In fact, some of us can be 100 times better than honey bees at pollinating fruit so we are in high demand to say the least.

Hey, you may notice that I look really different from the female Osmia here with us. It is common for males to look different from females, in fact it has a name -- sexual dimorphism. You can tell us apart by my blonde little hair tuft - females don’t have quite the maine I do. We emerge earlier than the females and basically just wait around to mate with them. A simple life we lead.

Hi, I’m sorry I’m a bit distracted today but as I look away check out my ocelli (the three dots on my head). They are not unique to bees, but we especially need them to navigate flight and orient to the sun. I’m a super quick flier and so I cherish my ocelli. Another fun fact about our family, which no one has touched on yet, is that we all collect pollen on our bellies. It’s an easy way to tell us apart from the others!

Hi there, I’m surprised no one in this breakout room has called attention to our beautiful strong mandibles. Check them out, they look like little scissors huh? We use them to cut the leaves Megachile talked about. FYI - I’m a pretty rare find and the only member of my group in North America. I am not as picky as many of the other Megachilids on this call and can enjoy most flowers.

Hi, I am obviously the most fabulous because of my shiny green metallic color. Like many other bees on this call, I am usually solitary but can at times nest communally. A couple of my friends have shared a nest entrance with lots of other species you see here like Halictus, so we are super inclusive in our communal living spaces.

Hi! Like many of my friends here, we have a wide diversity of lifestyles so I can’t speak on behalf of the other 630 species in my group. However, I will say that because we have so many social forms (i.e. some solitary, communal, semi-social, eusocial and parasitic) we are an ideal group for studying how social life evolves. I am technically within the group Lasioglossum so we are difficult to tell apart.

Hi there, my unfortunate nickname is the “shortface bee” because my antenna are a little lower on my head than my friends’. We tend to be specialists, but each species specializes on a very different type of flower.

I don’t have much to add that these wonderful ladies haven’t already touched on. I will just mention that us male solitary bees are usually easy to tell apart from our female counterparts by our relatively longer antenna. If you look at mine versus lady Dufourea, you can see the striking difference!

Hello from my humble ground dwelling! Many of us are highly social like the honey bees but with colonies that range from 2-200 workers. Our sociality can be context dependent though. As an example, one of my cousins Halictus rubicundus is highly social in warmer environments but solitary in colder areas at higher elevations. It’s pretty amazing how flexible we are able to be in response to the environment!

Even though my friend Dialictus is a part of my group, the true Lasioglossum usually leads a solitary life, not a highly social one.  But, I’ll touch on one thing that unites us all in this breakout room. So all of us here in the Halictidae family are called “sweat bees” because you guessed it- we are attracted to your sweat. Why? For the salt and minerals!

Hi, I’m nicknamed the “plasterer bee” because I wrap my babies in a plastic wrap! I’m able to make this polyester myself with a special gland and  since I nest in the ground and need a way to waterproof the lining of my brood cell.  You’ll also probably see me licking the cellophane-like wrapping. I’m actually lining the cell with a secretion that protects against bacterial and fungal pathogens!

Similar to Colletes, I too wrap my babies and their food in a cellophane - like lining. But you may have noticed that I look a little more wasp-like than the other bees. This is because I carry my pollen in my stomach rather than on my body -- so I don’t need to worry about external pollen carrying structures.

 Hi there, notice that I, like lady Hylaeus, look like I’m wearing a mask. This is where we get the name “masked bees”. One major difference between us is that I have a fuller mask, whereas my female counterpart often only has a couple of stripes on her face. We are very tiny bees, usually around the size of a grain of rice, so you’ll have to look close to see our beautiful faces.