77 Types of Bees With Real Pictures: Identify by Location, Size, Color, Species

Facts About Bees

Pollen and nectar are the main attractions for bees. These two substances are primarily found in flowers, so where there are flowers there will be certain types of bees, for however short a time they have.

The typical lifespan of a bee, whether it is the tiniest, the fairy bee at 2mm long, or the biggest, the Carpenter bee at 48mm long, is between 2 to 6 weeks. The queen bee outlasts them all, living on average from 1 to 2 years, but some continue for up to 4 years.

Responsible for the possible 10,000 to 60,000 bees buzzing in and out of the hive daily, she is the heart and future and is protected accordingly.

Throughout the honey production season, her time is spent mating with drones and laying up to 1,500 eggs per day and tending to the functionality of the hive.

Months later she will enter into a form of hibernation where she is surrounded by the warm bodies of drones to guarantee her survival throughout the winter. When that time arrives she will have laid approximately 200,000 eggs.

That sounds like a lot of bees but they do have a high mortality rate, dying in thousands worldwide daily from natural causes, diseases, deforestation, increasing destruction of their habitats every year, and predators, yet there are still over 2 trillion bees on the planet.

In the United States of America there are 4,000 native species, but what is not widely known is that until the Europeans settled in America in 1492 there were no honey bees in any part of the country.

It was only when these domesticated honey bees escaped captivity and swarmed free to set up nests far and wide that honey came to the United States.¹

What Kinds of Bees Live in the Ground? (Ground-Nesting Bees Identification)

Of all the bees on the planet, virtually 70% of them are classed as fossorial. That refers to the fact that rather than set up hives in trees, alcoves, crooks, and crevices, they prefer to go out of sight and underground.

These types of bees tend to be solitary, preferring to find a soft patch of dirt and either dig a new hive or occupy a hole abandoned by another animal and set up their own colony.

Some common types of bees found in backyards and gardens that prefer living this way are mason bees, mining bees, carpenter bees, and even those mega bumblebee pollinators.³

Sometimes these solitary bees will congregate in one area, living independently in their own colony yet in a group at the same time. Groups like these are called aggregations and are set up to fight off predators who could easily overwhelm one lone nest.

On other occasions more than one queen will share a hive, tending to their flock independently but defending each other fiercely against parasites if the need arises.

Any predator brave enough to assault one nest would have to fight off an angry hoard of bees defending as one.

This is not an uncommon arrangement and anyone unlucky enough to aggressively disturb this communal setting, accidentally or purposefully, had better be prepared to make a hasty retreat.

Bee Families and Genera (77 Types of Bees With Real Pictures: Identify by Location, Size, Color, Species)

Several years ago there were 11 types of bee families that categorized all of the 20,000 species globally. Further scientific study over the preceding years reduced that number to 7, as many of the bees had very similar traits.

Those 7 are:

• Apidae
• Andrenidae
• Colletidae
• Megachilidae
• Halictidae
• Mellittidae
• Stenotrtidae

Within each of these families, there are sub-tribes that are categorized under their umbrella as they have minute differences that differentiate them sufficiently to give them their own identity, but not enough to be classified as a separate family.

The family with the largest amount of species is the Apidae with 5,700. Ranked as one of its most famous members is the bumblebee, a species that for the last 9,000 years has been interacting with humankind for the benefit of both species, and has helped to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint today.

That collaboration has spawned an industry that has prevailed for centuries, crossed borders, and founded commercial enterprises built on the backs of these hard-working honey bees.⁵

Types of Bees: The Colony and the Honey Bees

A typical honey bee colony consists of the queen, the worker bees, and the drones.

Each instinctively knows what their role in the hierarchy is.

The queen is the homemaker whether setting up the colony above or below ground, the one who is in complete control of the hive, and the one who must be protected at all costs.

It is from her that the next several generations of bees will be born so all her needs and wants must be catered to. She spends all of her time in the brood chamber, waiting on like the queen she is.

That’s where the drones come in. These types of bees understand that their primary role in their short lives is to mate with the queen to ensure the survival of their species.

Once that task is fulfilled, even though some of them may not even complete that task, they will in all probability be kicked out at the end of the season to fend for themselves.

The ones who will be doing the kicking out will be the worker bees. They are all females who cannot reproduce, and their work ethic is second to none, divided into sections that are responsible for such things as house cleaning, and disposing of any dead bees near the hive.

They’re the ones that do all the heavy lifting, organization of the colony, feeding and grooming the queen, cleaning out her chamber, and tending to her every need.⁷

They also feed the newly hatched larva royal jelly and, considering that up to 2,000 eggs can be laid every day and hatch 3 days later, they are kept very busy.

After a further 3 days, honey and pollen are fed to the growing larva on a continuous basis until they spin themselves into a cocoon for 6 days. But even then there is no rest for them.

Multiple times in one day they will fly back and forth from the colony to collect pollen and nectar. Every time they arrive back at the colony with their stash, the honey-making machine smoothly slips into overdrive. The pollen is stored away for food while the nectar is set aside for making the precious honey.

The house bees store all the gathered nectar in the cells of the perfectly constructed honeycomb structures inside, fan the globs of nectar with their wings to eliminate any moisture and as soon as it ripens, they cap off the cells with beeswax.

The process is incredibly efficient and organized, but it couldn’t be completed without a level of communication unheard of by these types of bees in the insect world.

This method of communication takes the form of dancing and emitting odors. Each little dance or fragrance means something different and has to be clearly expressed, interpreted, and understood in an environment that is constantly in motion, and a little noisy.

When there are inhabitants that can number from 10,000 to 60,000 at any given moment, any form of breakdown in communication and the whole system would grind to a halt.

Types of Bee To Look Out For

With a worldwide population of over 2 trillion, there is going to be a lot of diversity across all the many species.

What is also diverse is the location where bees set up their colonies, from tree trunks, rock crevices, and sometimes any inviting spot around the outside of your house.

If they are not causing a nuisance of themselves they can be beneficial to the local fauna, and may even boost the productivity of your flower garden by helping your plants to pollinate.

The types of bees you should look out for are bumblebees, leafcutter bees, mining bees, and flower bees, to name just a few. Identifying the right species can be crucial in maintaining the health of your flowers and crops because not all bees are attracted to the same pollen and nectar holders.⁸

How to identify bees

Bees have different size tongues which affect their ability to access deep flowers. If the pollen harvesting task proves to be too difficult they will move on to a more considerate garden with easier access.

Also, the majority of bees have the ability to sting, but not all are inclined to do so. A few of them like to molest us humans just for fun, but the majority prefer to go about gathering pollen and nectar and tending to their hives.

Respect their privacy and personal space and they will ignore our very existence and sting only when feeling threatened.

Watch out for the bumblebee, though. It may be famous, it may even seem cute and cuddly, but it has been known to have a short fuse attached to a trigger stinger.

How To Attract Different Types of Bees

The fact is that different types of bees can help you have a better garden.

Without them, the excellent landscaping project that you have designed with meticulous care and attention to detail can suffer, and be made much harder to maintain in a healthy condition.

Without beneficial bees pollinating your flowers and plants diseases can easily infiltrate into the entire ecosystem that you have carefully engendered, and before you know it life is no longer a bed of roses.

So what do you do? How do you determine the mix of flowers to plant that will attract the bees you want?

The key is diversity. It is important to plant a range of flowers or crops that will attract these mighty pollinators at different times of the year so they will flock to your garden even when one species has become inactive.⁹

Flowers with multiple antlers in the center that are easy for the bees to reach provide more nectar and pollen and are much better than more layered, multipetaled flowers. Make it harder for the bees to gain access and they will go elsewhere.

Ensure that colors of purple, blue, and yellow are planted throughout your garden as these colors are known to further bring in the bees.

It is possible to go even further and create a welcoming habitat where, rather than traveling from out of state, so to speak, a bee colony could be set up within your very backyard.

If established at the right time, a queen bee could be lured away from setting up a nest elsewhere and instead into the lap of your flowering luxury.

Be careful, however, that you don’t inadvertently drive away these types of bees while trying to bring them closer.

Insecticides and pesticides, organic or otherwise, can be a major deterrent to these sensitive bees if not outright toxic. Use only as a last resort.

It is always advantageous to utilize other natural methods to control disease and unwanted pests to ensure that these master pollinators are attracted en masse to your hot garden spot, not repelled.

Black and White Bee (77 Types of Bees With Real Pictures: Identify by Location, Size, Color, Species)

Blood red, metallic green, bright orange, and fuzzy blue are just a few of the colors found on bees ducking and diving into flowers every day to capture their prizes of pollen and nectar.

But they do have a little bit of competition in the looks department from the black and white bee section.

Although not immediately thought of as eye-catching, black and white bees stand out just as vividly as their colorful compatriots.

A few of the better-looking ones that you may spot in your neighborhood as they spread far and wide across the United States. These types of bees were originally imported from Europe centuries ago and since then they have taken advantage of the floral opportunities that America has to offer.

• California Digger-Cuckoo Bee (Brachymelecta californica)
• Eight-Toothed Cuckoo Leaf-Cutter Bee (Coelioxys octodentatus)
• Texas Leaf-Cutter Bee (Megachile texana)
• Bellflower Resin Bee (Megachile campanulae)
• Common Longhorn Bee (Melissodes communis)¹⁰
• Leathery Sweat Bee (Lasioglossum coriaceum)
• Spine-Shouldered Cellophane Bee (Colletes simulans)
• Morning Glory Turret Bee (Melitoma taurea)
• Pugnacious Leafcutter Bee (Megachile pugnata)
• Waroon Cloak-And-Dagger Bee (Thyreus waroonensis)
• Sumac Cellophane-Cuckoo (Epeolus lectoides)
• Broad-Footed Cellophane Bee (Colletes latitarsis)
• Verbesina Longhorn-Cuckoo (Triepeolus verbesinae)
• Slender-Faced Masked Bee (Hylaeus leptocephalus)
• Indian Epaulette-Nomia (Pseudapis oxybeloides)

These types of bees are anything but boring because of their coloration. On the contrary. Many of them have such unique designs that not stopping and staring in appreciation isn’t even an option.

Hives of Activity

Having bee hives around your garden can be rewarding on many levels and is a sure sign that summer is in the air. They care for your flowers and crops naturally like no gardener ever could.

Yet there are so many types of bees buzzing around not just in the United States of America, that it can boggle the mind trying to identify them as they whiz on by.

For peace of mind, regularly consult this list of 77 types of bees with real pictures so that you can enjoy viewing wildlife, without being worried about bites.¹¹

Frequently Asked Questions About Types of Bees