Sackville's Bees

Here are some of our initial findings regarding the wild bee genera collected, as well as to provide some background information on bee biology that can help guide you in identifying the bees you might encounter in your nature-ly pursuits!

Bombus

We've found 8 different species of Bombus in Sackville so far. These are large, round, fuzzy bees. They are usually a mix of yellows and blacks, but some species also have some orange and yellow on their abdomen. The queens are much larger than the males and the workers, and you can usually hear the queens buzzing around in the early spring. They are ground nesters, and will repurpose abandoned rodent burrows into their nests. By mid to late summer a single colony could have up to 500 individual bees in it. There are around 260 species of Bombus in the world, with most of them living in the northern hemisphere

Megachile

These are the leafcutter bees, they use their strong mandibles to cut off pieces of leaves and use them to line their nests. These bees often have a fuzzy thorax and distinct stripes across their abdomen. Usually grey and black in colour. You can see evidence of these bees in your backyard by little circles of leaves cut out in your plants.

This is one of the groups of bees that can be raised commercially, as the alfalfa leaf cutter bee is raised to pollinate crops.

Macropis

Macropis are small to medium sized bees that are active throughout most of the summer. These bees are specialists to the plant Lysimachia and not only gather pollen from it but also floral oils. While they are solitary ground nesters, they will usually nest near other Macropis. The males of this species have a distinct yellow clypeus (part of their head in between their eyes and below their antennae). These bees look like they are wearing a tiny pair of chaps, as the scopal hairs on the hind limb are entirely white!

Lasioglossum

Lasioglossum are very small dark coloured bees. There many species of Lasioglossum in North America, with over 100 species in just Eastern Canada. They are usually a variation of black and metallic blue/green. By the midsummer these bees will be the most abundant, however due to their size can be often missed when looking in your garden. Many of these bees are generalists, and interestingly can be solitary and eusocial! Due to the large variety of species, there are major differences in behaviour between species. Some Lasioglossum are kleptoparasitic and some are even nocturnal. Unlike honey bees and Bombus these bees will rarely sting, and when they do it is relatively weak.

Andrena

Andrena are medium sized bees that are found throughout Eastern Canada and the United States. These are ground nesting bees that are often the first to emerge in the spring. That is how they received their common name "Mining Bees". They range from being a more egg yolk yellow to a pale, nearly white, yellow. Many of these species are generalists, but some of them can be generalists. Andrena nests can be up to 18 inches deep, and they are solitary bees, but will sometimes build their nests near other bees. Andrena aren't aggressive and likely won't sting humans. These are very hairy bees, and are very adept in pollen collection because of it.

Anthidium

Anthidium are medium sized, bright yellow and black bees. They are commonly found throughout the summer. Their common name is the Carder Bees, because they scrape the hairs (trichomes) off of plants to line their nests. These bees are known to hover around flowers, similar to flies. The majority of these species are generalists and ground nesters. Anthidium Are found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere and of the 92 species found in the Americas only 2 are introduced species.