A Surprising Study of Backyard Bees

It turns out that most wild bees are nothing like the handful of species I was familiar with. While honeybees and bumblebees live in large colonies, for instance, the majority of native bees are solitary. According to Droege, this solitary lifestyle may mean they are less susceptible to the parasites and diseases plaguing colonial honeybees and several bumblebee species.

H. ligatus ranges from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Seven years ago, when honeybees began to decline dramatically, many people feared that all bees were in trouble. Yet, except for some bumblebee species that are disappearing, no baseline data exist on native bee populations in this country and how they are changing—honeybees are native to Europe. The need to learn how these critical pollinators of crops and native plants are faring led Droege to launch an ambitious, all-volunteer effort to inventory and monitor the nation’s more than 4,000 native bee species.

A. aurata is one of the most common bees of eastern North America. Ranging from northern Mexico up to Colorado, Minnesota and New England, it is a “ubiquitous greenling of gardens and fields that is only the size of a grain of rice,” says Droege.

As the specimens I saw in Droege’s lab showed, the majority of wild bees also look quite different than honeybees and bumblebees. For one thing, most are very small, and they come in a startling variety of different shapes and colors. Pictured are just seven bees from Droege’s vast collection, all of them found—and in some cases, common—in backyards and other urban or suburban areas.

H. carinatus is “tiny enough to make its nest in the retired abodes of powder post beetles,” Droege says.

This article was originally published on National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Promise.

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