Within Apoidea, there are six families of bees that are found in New Brunswick: Andrenidae, Apidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae, and Mellitidae.

 

The “-idae”  suffix is a good hint that the taxon being discussed is at the family level! Within a family, there can be extensive variation in morphology (i.e., body form) and behaviour (e.g., nesting patterns), therefore it’s difficult and not very helpful to try to describe a list of identifying characteristics for each bee family 

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When we talk about organisms using scientific language (as opposed to common names), we refer to their genus and species, this is the most specific level of taxonomic organization. These classifications provide us with the most information about shared body form and identifying features. The convention within scientific naming systems is to list the genus first (italicized, capitalized) and the species second (italicized, not capitalized)- e.g., Bombus impatiens- this is the scientific name for the Common Eastern Bumblebee, one of the most abundant species of genus bombus in this region. We have a few pictures of this genus in the gallery!