Items14The creator’s order
  1. 1Eastern carpenter beeEastern carpenter beeA large bee with a fuzzy thorax can look like a bumble bee from above. Check the back end. The eastern carpenter bee’s abdomen is mostly shiny black and nearly bare. Females dig round tunnels in wood for their nests. A neat hole and fresh sawdust on or below a wooden surface can be another clue.0
  2. 2Bombus impatiensBombus impatiensCommon eastern bumble bee Look for a pale band of hair on the first segment of the abdomen, just behind the waist, with the rest of the abdomen usually black. The furry abdomen helps distinguish it from a large carpenter bee. A queen starts a colony in a sheltered cavity, and her workers visit…0
  3. 3Osmia lignariaOsmia lignariaBlue orchard bee Watch spring flowers for a stout bee with a dark metallic blue body. A female blue orchard bee uses an existing hole or hollow stem. She divides the space into small cells with mud, leaving pollen and nectar for each offspring. The blue color gets you to a group of lookalikes, and…0
  4. 4Peponapis pruinosaPeponapis pruinosaSquash bee Check open squash or pumpkin flowers early in the day. These bees can plunge straight into a blossom and disappear from view. The females gather the pollen they feed to their young from squash and closely related plants. The nest can be right under the crop, in a tunnel in the soil.0
  5. 5Augochlora puraAugochlora puraPure green sweat bee This shiny green bee has a nesting habit that helps separate it from many green lookalikes. In eastern North America, it makes its nest in decaying wood. You may see the adult on a flower, but the rotting bark or log is where to look for signs of its nest.0
  6. 6Megachile pugnataMegachile pugnataSunflower leafcutter bee Watch sunflowers and other flowers in the daisy family. Females gather pollen there, with brushes under the abdomen that can give the belly a yellow dusting. In a hollow stem or other existing cavity, a female uses cut leaves as part of the partitions between the cells for…0
  7. 7Bombus vosnesenskiiBombus vosnesenskiiYellow-faced bumble bee On the West Coast, look for yellow hairs on the face and at the front of the thorax. Queens and workers also have a yellow band well back on an otherwise dark abdomen. A view from the front and the side gives you a better chance of seeing the whole pattern.0
  8. 8Andrena erigeniaeAndrena erigeniaeSpring beauty bee Look close to the ground when spring beauties open in the spring. The little mining bee that shares their name visits their pale striped flowers, a better place to start looking than a random patch of blooms. It belongs to a group of bees that dig nests in the soil.0
  9. 9AgapostemonAgapostemonMetallic green sweat bees Many sweat bees are small and dark, but these often catch the light. In this group, a male can have a bright green head and thorax with a black-and-yellow striped abdomen. Many females are green much farther back. Look for nests in the ground, where some species share an…0
  10. 10CeratinaCeratinaSmall carpenter bees These are tiny, often shiny bluish-green or dark bees. The place to look for them is the broken end of a dead stem. A female can dig into the soft pith inside rose, sumac, or elder and make room for her offspring. That small tunnel can be easier to spot than the bee.0