May 20th is World Bee Day, which is an opportunity to celebrate not only the beloved honey bee, but North America’s 4,000 species of native bees. Throughout spring and summer, these insects dutifully pollinate crops and wildflowers. Our native bee species are beautifully varied and can be striped, metallic, fuzzy, thin, rotund, in a spectrum of colors. The world’s smallest species—the Euphorb mini-fairy bee—is only found in our southern deserts. At 2mm it is about as long as a US nickel is thick.
Bee behavior varies greatly too. Species fly at different times—early morning, daytime, or night. Many emerge seasonally in spring or summer, while others remain hidden underground for years awaiting summer monsoons. Bees inhabit diverse environments, from cold mountain peaks to beaches. Generalist species visit many flower types, while specialists pollinate only specific flowers. And unlike bumble bees and other hive-dwelling bee species such as honey bees and stingless bees, over 70% of the world’s bee species are in fact solitary, hardworking moms who quietly nest in overlooked places like decomposing logs and alongside garden paths.
If you’ve ever asked yourself, “what is a bee,” you might be surprised to learn that they are, in fact, vegetarian wasps. However, unlike their wasp relatives, which often feed their young protein in the form of paralyzed insects and the hamburger they might steal from your picnic table, most bees provide their offspring with protein made from pollen mixed with nectar. The mother bee compacts these materials into a pellet and places it within her nest cavity, lays a single egg atop the mixture, then seals the chamber where the young bee will develop entirely without maternal assistance.
