Solitary Bees
There is no worker class among solitary bees, but only fully developed males and females. Each female builds a nest in a protected place. Although many nests may be found close together each female solitary bee provides for her own young and gathers her own food. Like all wild bees, solitary bees are chiefly valuable as pollinators of plants.
The black carpenter bee has purplish wings and uses its strong jaws to bore a tunnel in solid wood. At the end of the tunnel, the female stores a supply of food and lays an egg. She then seals off the cell with chewed bits of wood stuck together with a glue-like secretion from her mouth. She repeats this process until the tunnel is filled with cells, each containing an egg and a supply of food for the larva. The little carpenter bee digs its nest in the pithy parts of twigs and small branches.
The carpenter bee uses its strong jaws to bore tunnels in solid wood.tunnel in the ground. In the spring, a single female raises a family. Young females then help enlarge the tunnel, and each digs a separate compartment, branching off from the main tunnel, for her own eggs.
The mining bee tunnels into loose ground to make its home.do not build their own nests but lay their eggs in nests of other bees. Some cuckoo bees resemble bumblebees; they lay their eggs in bumblebee nests and their young are raised by bumblebee workers.
tunnel into wood, under stones, into trees and plants, or between shingles. The female cuts pieces of leaves, using them to build thimble-shaped compartments inside the tunnel. Each compartment contains an egg and a supply of food.
The leafcutting bee nests in cells made of small pieces of leaf.use moist clay, mixed with sticks and leaves, to make their brood cells. The cells are sometimes built into holes in old walls, although the insects also tunnel into woodwork.
The mason bee uses moist clay, sticks and leaves to make its brood cells.Bees belong to the order Hymenoptera. The honeybee (Apis mellifera), bumblebees (genus Bombus), and cuckoo bees of the genus Psithyrus belong to the family Apidae. Carpenter bees (genera Xylocopa and Ceratina) and cuckoo bees of the genera Melecta and Nomada belong to the family Anthophoridae. Miner bees (genus Andrena) belong to the family Andrenidae. Leaf-cutter bees (various genera) and mason bees (genus Osmia) belong to the family Megachilidae.
