Female Valley Carpenter Bee. Photo courtesy of Tuleyome


WOODLAND, CA (MPG) - Bees have been getting a lot of love in recent years. With social media influencers rescuing swarms in videos getting millions of views, signs imploring us to “save the bees”, and books written about the fascinating and intricate social structure inside a bee hive; all signs point to the fact that we are growing in our fascination of these little pollinators. But even with all this hype, generally we know remarkably little about the wide range of bees doing this important work. 

Most readers will initially think of the honeybee when thinking of bees that need saving. So ubiquitous and beloved are honeybees, Apis mellifera, that most of us would be surprised to know that they weren’t always buzzing around our region. European honeybees were imported into North America by early European settlers in 1622 for their honey making ability. European honeybees are special in that they are one of only a few bee species that produce honey, but they are far from the only bee that is doing the work of pollinating. 

Honeybees in fact, aren’t able to pollinate many of our native plants, or some of our most important cultivated plants, most notably in our region, tomatoes. Tomatoes rely upon wind pollination and the “buzz pollination” of native bumble bees and carpenter bees, a process that involves quickly contracting their wing muscles to create vibrations that release pollen inaccessible to other insects. If you love tomatoes, blueberries, peppers and eggplant among other foods, you have a native pollinator to thank!

Scientists estimate that there are 4,000 species of native bees in North America, and over 1600 species in California. In my home county of Yolo alone, there are over 330 species! Even after learning this, I can still only recognize a handful. For the amount of work these tiny creatures do for our survival as humans, how do we not know more about them?

Bees are fascinating in their diversity, their adaptability, and they are entertaining in their bumbly antics. There are bees the size of an ant (Perdita minima), and bees the size of a sweet summer cherry (Xylocopa sonorina), bees that are fuzzy like tiny teddy bears (Bombus californicus) and hairless bees that glisten in the sun (Ceratina acantha). Some have fancy stripes (Anthophora californica), and some that have long graceful antennae (Melissodes robustior.) There are yellow bees, black bees, red bees, orange bees, and bees that shine with metallic iridescent green (Agapostemon texanum) and blue (Osmia lignaria). 

Not only are bees incredibly diverse in their appearance, they also vary widely in behavior, habitat and temperament. There are bees that nest in small family groups, and bees that nest alone, bees that cut leaves with the precision of a skilled carpenter, and bees whose mandibles are strong enough to chew through wood. There are bees that have slumber parties in the large blooms of sunflowers (Melissodes agilis), and bees that steal nectar from flowers without pollinating (Bombus occidentalis). California Longhorn Cuckoo bee, Triepeolus californicus doesn’t actually pollinate because they don’t need pollen to make their own nests, instead they lay their eggs in the nests of other bee species, an example of parasitism in bees. 

There are bees that carry pollen on their abdomens, those that get their hairs adorably covered in pollen granules, looking like a child who has just eaten a chocolate bar, while others are more refined and place their pollen in organized little pollen packages neatly set aside on their hind legs. Megachile montivaga, or the Silver-tailed petalcutter bee primarily uses flower petals to build their nests. A species of native bee on the east coast even uses seashells to nest in! 

The largest bee species in California is the Valley Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa sonorina), probably the most recognizable of our native bee species, for their sheer size alone. They grow up to 3.2 centimeters in length, and the females are a gorgeous glossy black with iridescent wings. The males of the species are sometimes called teddy bear bees, because males are orange and fuzzy and bumble around looking for a mate. Like many of our native bees, they are solitary, though the female sometimes nests with her daughters to share the workload of tending to the younger generation. To build their nests they chew small nests in wood, historically in rotting trees, but with habitat loss and our tendency to remove snags and dead wood from our properties, they are often found in pergolas or fence posts or other available wood, sometimes causing them to be seen as a nuisance. 

The smallest species of bee in the world, the Perdita minima calls California home. This tiny fairy bee grows to only slightly less than 2 millimeters in length, and pollinates the tiny flowers of the Spurge family (Euphorbiacea). The size difference between the Valley Carpenter bee and the Perdita minima is a great visual for the wide range of native bees in our region.
 

Native bees are facing huge obstacles including habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change.  Agricultural uses of managed bees have also impacted native bee populations. Many of our native bees are now considered endangered, including 4 species of native bumblebees (Bombus). This makes protection of lands such as the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument very important for bee conservation. 

We can do a lot to protect bees in our own yards too. One of the most rewarding parts of growing native plants in my garden is getting to observe the wide array of bees that visit. There are so many tiny hardworking pollinators that I never noticed before, or wrote off as flies, that with a closer look are all different types of bees doing the life sustaining work of pollinating the plants around us. 

Want to see more native bees in your yard or in your neighborhood park? Want to “save” some native bees and get to enjoy watching them at the same time? All it takes is some habitat: native flowers, untilled soil, leaf cover, a space free from pesticide use, and a water source especially on these hot summer days.  Many of our native bees are solitary and nest either underground in mud nests, in the cavities of dead trees, or hollow stems of plants. Having a little messiness in your garden can make a big difference for native bees. Leaving leaf litter and plant stems to overwinter in your garden may look messy to us, but looks like home to our native bees. Leaving a snag in your yard when a tree has aged, can allow for our Carpenter bees to nest somewhere other than your pergola.

Next time you are out in the garden, take a moment and look closely at the flowers, see who you can find buzzing around. Birders and Pokémon fans, I have a new game for you! How many native bees can you spot? Get excited, because there are so many neighbors that you have yet to meet. 

Diana Drips is a Certified California Naturalist. Tuleyome is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Woodland, CA. For more information go to www.tuleyome.org.