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1 Currently, there are 4,000 genera (types of bees). In addition to this, scientists have recorded 20,000 individual species. It’s believed that there are even more and the research continues for their discovery.
Bees are fascinating little creatures. Despite their massive role in promoting a healthy natural environment, bees, for the most part, are overlooked. It would not be an understatement to say that without bees and other pollinators, humanity, for the most part, would have perished long ago.
In this post, we’ll be sharing the 16 most common types of bees, which you often come across in parks and other green areas, even in urban locations.
Why Do We Need Bees to Survive?
Bees help pollinate plants. In other words, bees carry pollen from one plant to another, usually of different sexes and sometimes even between different areas of the same plant. This helps in reproduction and prevents inbreeding, enabling the plant to survive.
A large portion of the total plant species worldwide relies on pollinators to reproduce. Out of the 200,000 different species of pollinators around, only 1,000 are vertebrates such as small birds, bats, and other small mammals, whereas the rest are invertebrates such as butterflies, flies, beetles, bees, etc.
While bees aren’t the only pollinators around, they are the most efficient out of the lot, making them much more critical to the process.
Plants are the backbone of a functioning human society; from food to their use as medicine, almost every aspect of human life is influenced by plants to some extent. The absence of bees as essential pollinators casts a massive shadow of doubt over the efficiency of pollination of over 180,000 different plant species.
Albert Einstein once said,
“If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.”
Bee Families
There are around 20,000 known bee species throughout the world. Out of these 25,000, seven major bee families are Megachilidae, Apidae, Colletidae, Andrenidae Halictidae, Stenotritidae, and Melittidae.
The Megachilidae bee family consists of around 3,000 species. These include the mason, carder, and leafcutter bees, as well as the largest known bee, the Megachile Pluto or better known as Wallace’s Giant Bee.
The Apidae family has the highest number of bees out of the lot. It encompasses at least 5,700 different species of bees, which can either be solitary or social. These include the bees that most people are familiar with, for example, bumble bees, carpenter bees, and honey bees.
Around 2,000 species of bees belong to the Colletidae family. These bees are also called plasterer or cellophane bees; the Colletidae family smooth their cell walls with secretions from their mouths. These secretions dry out, like plaster, to form a waterproof lining.
The Andrenidae family has 2,700 species of bees under their name. These bees are solitary, small, and typically ground-nesting, earning the title “mining bees.” The family also consists of the Perdita Minima, the smallest bee species in the world, measuring around 2 millimeters.
More than 3,500 species of bees worldwide belong to the Halictidae family. Compared to the number of species in the other bee families, the Melittidae and the Stenotritidae family fall on the lower end of the spectrum. The Melittidae only has 200 species, and the Stenotritidae has only 21, that too, only in Australia.
What is the Difference Between a Bee and a Wasp?
Due to their similar color and close relation (both belong to the same insect order of Hymenoptera), bees and wasps are often mistaken for one another. However, a few vital traits set both of these apart from each other.
The most significant difference between a wasp and a bee is the number of times they can sting; bees can only sting once before dying; on the other hand, wasps can sting multiple times, a trait they take full advantage of.
Wasps are also more aggressive in nature. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to encounter a hornet, paper-wasp, or even a yellow jacket wasp, you’d know that they can be pretty nasty, especially if you get close to their nest.
Bees are much more docile in comparison; they tend to avoid any sort of confrontation with humans unless provoked first.
Aside from their stings and nature, a better method is to observe their physical appearance. Even though they both belong to Hymenoptera, there are some critical differences in their physical features.
Wasps usually have a narrow waist complemented with a smooth and slender body, whereas bees are generally plump and hairier, with fuzz covering a few or almost all parts of their body.
If you look closely, wasps also have distinctive yellow and black bands on their abdomens; bees have more of an ambiguous yellowish-brown or light brown color. While these features can vary from bee to bee and wasp to wasp, they’ll be able to help you differentiate one insect from the other upon encounter.
Common Types of Bees Found in Backyards
There are over 25,000 types of known bees worldwide, spanning every continent except Antarctica.
1. Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena Cineraria)
Scientific name: Andrena Cineraria
Size: 13 – 15 mm (0.5 – 0.6 inch) – males are generally smaller than females
Lifespan: 6 – 8 weeks
Locations: Sunny locations, particularly in areas having sandy soils, such as coastal areas, moorlands, riverbanks, and open woodlands. You can also find them in gardens and green sections of urban areas.
The ashy mining bees are from the Andrenidae family and are commonly seen between March and June. They are solitary in nature and are often found in sunny locations with sandy soils. They are also quite common in the green locations of urban areas.
The ashy mining bees are recognizable by their black and grey coloring. There are slight differences between the males and females, with females having more distinctive markings than the males.
The female ashy mining bees have the same size as the honey bees. Their abdominal area is shiny black, which sometimes looks blue, depending upon the intensity of the light.
The most distinctive feature of a female ashy mining bee is the two stripes of light grey hair running across the top and bottom of the thorax. The white hair on their face also distinguishes them from other bees.
Ashy mining bees love feeding on buttercups, blackthorns, hawthorns, and fruit trees. They make nests under bare earth.
2. Box-headed Blood Bee (Sphecodes Monilicornis)
Scientific Name: Sphecodes Monilicornis
Size: 7-10 mm (0.3 – 0.4 inch)
Lifespan:
Locations: It is found throughout the UK, with the most common areas being southern England and Wales
The box-headed blood bee is from the Halictidae family.
The box-headed blood bees got their name from their blood-red abdominal region, which is their distinguishing feature from other types of bees.
The male and female box-headed blood bees are slightly different from each other, with males having a less prominent red tint to the top of the abdomen and a smaller body as compared to the females.
The females have a box-shaped head, hence the name box-headed blood bee. They have a relatively slender body with pale hair on the back legs and 5 eyes.
Out of the female box-headed blood bees five eyes, two are the main ones and the other three are ocelli, a scientific term for primitive eyes found between the main eyes on the top of the head.
Box-headed blood bees are kleptoparasitic to other bees.
Kleptoparasites are those animals that feed on the food caught, collected, prepared, or saved by other animals.
In terms of kleptoparasitism, Halictus, Andrenam, and Lasioglossum are the favorites of the box-headed blood bees. The females collect food from these bees’ nests and feed them to their young instead of the pollens.
Similar to the food, the box-headed blood bees don’t like constructing their own homes. They invade other bees’ nests, destroy their eggs and grub, lay their own eggs, and secure the nest before leaving to let the eggs hatch.
The female box-headed blood bees are generally found near different types of furrow bees, for instance, the orange-legged furrow bees and the sharp-collared furrow bees, because they love to raid their nests to make their own.
3. Bumblebee (Bombus)
Scientific name: Bombus
Size: 15 to 25 mm (0.6 to 1 inch)
Lifespan: Two weeks to one year
Locations: They are most commonly found in the Eastern temperate forest regions of the eastern United States, southern Canada, and the eastern Great Plains. They are adaptable to all environments, be it urban or rural.
The bumblebee is from the Apidae family. You are most likely to see a male bumblebee during the late summer and fall, whereas, a female one throughout the year.
Bumblebees are divided into true and cuckoo versions. Cuckoo bumblebees are quite similar to male true bumblebees. They have the following characteristics:
- They don’t have pollen baskets.
- They have hairy hind legs.
- Cuckoo bumblebees and male true bumblebees have a v-shaped or gently-scalloped edge at the top of their tail.
- They have black hair at their abdomen’s end.
- Their most distinctive feature is their short faces.
The three main tail colors of bumblebees include red, white (ranging from off-white to yellow), and uniform (tail color similar to that of the abdomen, generally ginger).
A few of the bumblebees are either very dark or completely black, termed melanic bumblebees.
4. Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa)
Scientific name: Xylocopa
Size: 14 to 25 mm (0.5 – 1 inch)
Lifespan: 1-3 years
Locations: They are mainly found in North America; however, carpenter bees can thrive in various conditions, including subtropical and tropical climates.
Carpenter bees belong to the Megachilidae family. They are generally solitary insects and are the largest bees native to the United States.
The different species in the Genus Xylocopa are often difficult to tell apart since most of them are predominantly black. They are also often confused with bumblebees by non-professionals. Carpenter bees are characterized by their abdominal region, which is usually black and hairless, unlike bumblebees.
The male carpenter bees can sometimes have an entirely white or yellow face. Males of many species also have eyes more prominent than their female counterparts, and sometimes a white dot on their faces. Female carpenter bees often have black faces and, in comparison to bumble bees, lack the bee corbicula; they have an entirely hairy hind leg.
While carpenter bees are predominantly black, some species can also be purplish, green, or even blue in color.
These bees have eccentric nesting habits, hence, their name. Carpenter bees tend to drill flawlessly round nests in wood. While there is no doubt about their importance in pollination, carpenter bees are sometimes considered a nuisance due to the damage they cause to wooden surfaces in yards and homes.
5. Furrow Bee (Halictus)
Scientific name: Halictus
Size: 6 to 19 mm (0.25 – 0.75 inch)
Lifespan: 3 – 4 months
Locations: Usually found in the Northern Hemisphere, with a few species in Africa, Asia, and South America.
Furrow bees belong to the Halictidae family. These bees are docile in nature and captivated by human sweat, hence earning them the name “sweat bees.” Furrow bees require sodium to live healthily, which isn’t easily obtained from nectar, so they’re attracted to human sweat and may even settle down and walk around on your arm calmly.
Most species of sweat bees are small in size. Furrow bees come in a wide range of colors, making them a little challenging to identify. Most furrow bees, however, are a mixture of black or dark brown with a bit of green. They also have small patches of hair located on the outer edges of their abdomen and are characterized by their robust heads and equipped with a genal tooth.
Some species of sweat bees are solitary, whereas a majority are social. Some species change their behavior depending on the environmental factors in the surrounding; for example, the Halictus Rubicundus (or the Orange-Legged Furrow Bee) are generally solitary in cold and mountainous regions and social in warmer environments.
Unlike most bees, they tend to burrow into the soil and rotten wood in areas devoid of vegetation to create their nests.
6. Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora Plumipes)
Scientific name: Anthophora Plumipes
Size: 14 to 16 mm (0.5 – 0.6 inch)
Lifespan: 4 – 6 weeks; males usually live a bit longer than the females
Locations: Found mainly in Wales and England. They are more common in the East and the South and are being increasingly spotted in parts of Northern England and Central Scotland.
Hairy-footed flower bees are a part of the Apidae family. These bees are one of the first solitary bees to emerge and can often be seen flying between February and June.
Male hairy-footed flower bees are usually noticed first since they exit their hibernation period earlier than the females. Although these bees are solitary, they still tend to nest in large numbers, which can create quite some noise.
Female hairy-footed flower bees are pretty similar to bumble bees in appearance, except they’re smaller. They have orange hair on their hind legs with a black and furry body. On the other hand, their male counterparts often have cream-colored and rusted brown-colored fur on their face and body, respectively.
Hairy-footed flower bees like to frequent woodlands, gardens, and parks. They are also known to hide in the soft mortar and the cracks between bricks.
7. Honey Bee (Genus Apis)
Scientific name: Genus Apis
Size: 7 to 19 mm (0.3 – 0.8 inch)
Lifespan: 30 – 60 days
Locations: They are found worldwide in domestic habitats except in Antarctica.
Honey bees belong to the Apidae bee family. They are all eusocial species, i.e., they live in colonies with only a few of them capable of reproducing, and are the most commonly known bees worldwide. Honey bees have large hairy eyes that are even noticeable on camera.
Male and female honey bees have contrasting physical appearances. These distinctions are easy to make out as male honey bees have seven abdominal sections and their eyes are at the top of their heads, whereas female honey bees have six abdominal areas.
Honey bees are also excellent pollinators and pollinate around 80% of the total flowering plants globally in a highly efficient manner.
Honey bees have little to no tibial spurs at the back of the legs. This is because they live in wax combs, and they do not need to dig out of their homes. Their hind legs have flattened segments, and their mandibles are shaped like a spoon which helps them feed their young.
8. Ivy Bee (Colletes)
Scientific name: Colletes
Size: 10 to 13 mm (0.4 – 0.6 inch); male ivy bees are smaller in size than females
Lifespan: 5 – 6 weeks
Locations: Found mainly in the South of the United Kingdom (UK), in the Channel Islands, Wales, and England.
The Ivy bee belongs to the Colletidae family. They are also known as cellophane bees and plasterer bees due to how they line their nests. Ivy bees are similar to honey bees in appearance, except that they’re slightly bigger in size, and their thorax regions are ginger-colored.
Male and female ivy bees are pretty similar in appearance. Ivy bees are also difficult to differentiate from other types of plasterer bees. A great approach to identify them is to note the time of the year the bee is seen in.
Ivy bees are active in the latter half of the year; they are active from late August to October and may even be observed at the start of November. Male ivy bees exit hibernation earlier than females and can be seen flying around late August, whereas females can take until early September to come out.
Ivy bees are solitary bees and can often be seen in coastal areas, farmlands, and urban areas. They usually frequent ivy flowers, hence the name, and may sometimes opt for other types of late bloomers.
9. Leafcutter Bee (Megachilidae)
Scientific name: Megachilidae
Size: 5 to 24 mm (0.2 – 1 inch)
Lifespan: 5 – 8 weeks
Locations: They are pretty common in the UK, although a few species can be found in the North too.
Leafcutter bees are from the Megachilidae family. They are solitary with essentially no social caste and fend alone for themselves and their offspring. Leafcutter bees are considered excellent for pollinating wildflowers, vegetables, fruits, and other plants.
Some species of leafcutter bees, such as the Coast leafcutter bee, tend to nest in groups despite their solitary nature. These bees are very quick and can distribute pollen efficiently by carrying it on their abdomen. According to research, around 150 leafcutter bees can pollinate the same number of plants in a greenhouse as 3,000 honey bees.
Leafcutter bees are usually black in color and have white hair covering the bottom of their abdominal region and their thorax. Most of their species have an enormous jaw, which helps them cut off leaves. They’re also pretty neat cutters and can cut leaves without producing any sort of jagged, rough edges along with their tears.
Leafcutter bees build their nests in the dark, small cavities and other crevices that occur naturally. They also cover the cavities of their nests by placing parts of leaves they cut off over them.
10. Mason Bee (Osmia)
Scientific name: Osmia
Size: 10 – 16 mm (0.4 – 0.6 inch)
Lifespan: 4- 6 weeks; males live much shorter than the females
Locations: They are common throughout North America and Europe
Mason bees belong to the Megachilidae family. They get their name from their eccentric nest production. Once they find a suitable location, usually natural crevices or dimly lit cavities, mason bees use mud and other types of masonry products to fortify their nests. They also fill holes in their nests with mud to protect their offspring from wasp attacks.
These bees are small in size and very agile, which makes them good pollinators. A female Osmia Lignaria, a type of mason bee also known as the Blue Orchard Bee, is considered to be 25 times as effective as honey bees when pollinating almonds.
Adult mason bees are around half an inch in length. Since mason bees do not have legs with pollen baskets, they use the lower side of their abdomens to transfer pollen which can cause their hind area to appear enlarged during the transfer.
Mason bees are usually solitary insects and can come in different shades. They typically have metallic-looking bodies with alternating shades of dull green, black and dark blue.
11. Pantaloon Bee (Dasypoda Hirtipes)
Scientific name: Dasypoda Hirtipes
Size: 9 to 11 mm (0.3 – 0.4 inch)
Locations: Pantaloon bees are commonly found in Morocco, China, Finland, Eastern Russia, and the UK (the southeast and southwest coastal areas of England).
Pantaloon bees are a part of the Melittidae bee family. Female pantaloon bees have large brushes of orange pollen against their hind legs, which gives them a similar look to a pantaloon-wearing bee, hence the name. Female pantaloon bees are almost immediately recognizable due to this.
Male pantaloon bees are similar to their female counterparts in appearance, except that they have long hair and do not have “pantaloons.” Similarly, they also have golden-brown and black bands on their stomach. As the males are further exposed to the sun, their color can fade to a silvery white.
Unlike other mining bees, pantaloon bees create their nest in the form of a heap of soil arranged like a fan. Despite being solitary insects, pantaloon bees usually nest in large groups where each female pantaloon bee tends to her own nest.
Pantaloon bees can be observed from June to August, and this is where the pantaloons come in handy. After exiting their hibernation, female pantaloon bees use these pantaloons to help excavate sand as they burrow through their nest.
12. Southeastern Blueberry Bee (Habropoda Laboriosa)
Scientific name: Habropoda Laboriosa
Size: 12 to 16 mm (0.5 – 0.62 inch)
Lifespan: 3 – 5 weeks
Locations: Common throughout the eastern side of the United States
Southeastern blueberry bees belong to the Apidae family. As their name implies, blueberry bees are excellent pollinators of the plant. This is especially so for rabbiteye blueberries, a type of blueberry that requires buzz pollination to be transmitted.
Southeastern Blueberry bees are quite fascinating insects. Over the years, these bees have evolved with the plant to the point where they can fit their bodies inside the flowers of the bell-shaped blueberry plant almost perfectly.
These bees are native to the eastern part of the United States and can also feed on other types of flowers. Southeastern Blueberry Bees are solitary insects that prefer to burrow and nest inside the ground near blueberry plants.
They are commonly observed from February to April.
13. Squash Bee (Peponapis and Xenoglossa)
Scientific name: Peponapis and Xenoglossa
Size: 11 to 14 mm (0.4 – 0.5 inch)
Lifespan: 4 – 6 weeks
Locations: These bees can be found anywhere from Georgia to California and Quebec to Mexico.
Squash bees are part of the family Apidae; however, these bees ultimately result from two connected genera, the Xenoglossa and the Peponapis.
Squash bees are bulky and heavy, quite similar to bumblebees in their physical stature. Their coloring resembles that of honeybees; however, their faces are much rounder with a longer antenna length in comparison.
Before honey bees were introduced to the “New World,” squashes and gourds were mainly pollinated by squash bees, thereby earning them their name. Even now, pumpkin, squash, and gourds are the sole pollen source for female squash bees.
They are solitary bees that usually burrow and create their nests in the soil. Sometimes, however, male squash bees reside the night inside closed flowers before setting out again in the early morning hours, where they can usually be observed pollinating.
14. Tawny Mining Bee (Andrenidae Fulva)
Scientific name: Andrenidae Fulva
Size: 8 to 12 mm (0.3 to 0.5 inches); the females are generally smaller than the males
Lifespan: 6 – 8 weeks
Locations: They can survive in a variety of habitats and are commonly found in parts of southern Britain and central Scotland. A few scarce species are found in Ireland.
The Tawny Mining Bees are from the Andrenidae family. They are commonly observed flying around between the months of March and May.
Male tawny mining bees live longer than the females and are also smaller in size and thinner in comparison. They also have protruding jaws and a lighter brown-colored coat of hair.
Female tawny mining bees are comparable to honeybees in size. The female version of the tawny mining bees has thick hair on their thoraxes, which are reddish-orange. Their body, from the face to the legs and undersides, are all black in color, and their abdominal regions are also covered by thick hair, which is light orange in color.
Tawny mining bees are often observed in well-managed gardens with short vegetation and can feed on dandelions, maple, willows, and buttercups. Tawny mining bees are a solitary species as they only have one female bee per nest, which is built late into spring once all the males pass away after mating.
These bees are often at risk from Bombylius Major, also known as the Large Bee-Fly, which can flick its eggs inside the nest with exceptional accuracy. Once hatched, these eggs consume the stored pollen and young bees to survive.
15. Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium Manicatum)
Scientific name: Anthidium Manicatum
Size: 11 to 17 mm (0.4 – 0.7 inch); males are generally larger than the females
Lifespan: 2 – 6 weeks
Locations: Usually found in cliffs and riverbanks in North America, from the middle to the West Coast and in Mexico
The wool carder bee is a part of the Megachilidae bee family. Wool carder bees have a habit of brushing off the fuzz from wooly leaves (such as mullein), which gives them their name.
The body of the carder bee has a distinct pattern consisting of yellow spots by the sides. Like the leafcutter bees, these bees carry pollen on their abdomen instead of their hind legs.
Carder bees are also unique because their males lack the ability to sting. Rather, at the end of the abdominal region, they have visible spikes. The males of said species are also covered with pale yellow hair on their thorax, abdomen, and head.
Female carder bees, on the other hand, can sting but lack any visible spikes; they are also less hairy. Female carder bees usually retrieve wool fibers back to their nests from plants.
Carder bees are also seen quite frequently in the wetlands and woodlands of their active areas.
16. Yellow-faced Bee (Hylaeus)
Scientific name: Hylaeus
Size: 5 to 7 mm (0.2 – 0.3 inch)
Lifespan: 60 – 74 days
Locations: Commonly found in Hawaii
Yellow-faced bees belong to the Colletidae family. These bees have yellow or white markings on different aspects of their body, including the thorax region, legs, and faces; they are also said to closely resemble tiny black wasps due to their slender bodies.
These bees are pretty unique in their appearance (in bee terms) because their bodies lack scopa (extra limbs used to carry pollen). Instead of limbs, yellow-faced bees have areas on their abdomen where food can be stored; these are called crops.
Yellow-faced bees are solitary in nature and are often observed between May and September. They’re likely to frequent plants such as common boneset, carrot plant, swamp milkweeds, and Golden Alexanders.
These bees tend to use already existing tunnels to build their nests. The female yellow-faced bee piles up the content of her crop alongside each of her eggs for them to feed on once they hatch.
There are a lot of species of the yellow-faced bees which are unique from other bees and fascinating in their own regard; however, most of these are quite low in number due to their extremely narrow range, which is why yellow-faced bees are considered a rare endangered species.
You can read more about endangered animals on ‘The 5 Most Endangered Animals in 2022‘.
Furthermore, if you are interested in saving these tiny fascinating creatures, then learn about habitat restoration from ‘Habitat Restoration: The Ultimate Guide’.
We are sure by now you would have learned quite a bit about the different types of bees commonly found in our backyards. Do share your stories about the various types of bees that you have encountered in your life and which ones you found to be the most fascinating.
FAQs
How many types of bees are there?
Currently, there are 4,000 genera (types of bees). In addition to this, scientists have recorded 25,000 individual species. It’s believed that there are even more and the research continues for their discovery.
What types of bees make honey?
Out of all the different types of bees in the world, only the Genus Apis, or the honey bee, are capable of making honey.
Do bumblebees sting?
Bumblebees can sting; however, they rarely do. You can avoid getting stung by a bumblebee if you avoid any actions that may provoke them.
How many types of bumblebees are there?
A bumblebee is any bee belonging to the Genus Bombus, a part of the Apidae family. There are over 250 known bumblebee species throughout the world.
How many types of bees make honey?
Only a single type of bee, that is, those belonging to the Genus Apis, can produce honey.
How many types of honey bees are there?
While up to eleven species of honey bees have been recognized historically, only eight species with 43 subspecies are recognized currently.
