14 Different Types Of Bees In Ohio (With Pictures)
Bees’ reason for being so loud is that they could beat the air over 11,400 times in a minute! Only female bees can have stingers. Male bees do not have stingers. Honey bees communicate with each other through the use of dance movements.
A hive of bees can fly 55,000 miles to produce one pound of honey. It can have 100 lbs of honey per year. Bees detect the hormone that human emits when they’re afraid. If they sense that the hive is in danger, they’ll strike. Honey Bees are the only insect that can be considered a threat.
Table of Contents
Honey Bee is the only insect that produces food that man can take. Every Honey Bee in the same hive is given their unique color-coded identification. It is believed that the Ancient Egyptian King Pepy II invented an ingenious insect repellent.
He would cover enslaved people entirely with honey so that they would be drawn to love and not to him. Eating honey makes you smarter! It is a source of antioxidants that improves brain functions. One bee has five eyes! See them in the image above.
Honey bees are essential pollinators of fruits, flowers, and other vegetables. Delicious honey! Did you know that they make honey to provide food for the hive in the winter months? For us, these incredibly efficient bees produce 2-3 times the amount of love they require, meaning we can have a delicious snack, as well! Unfortunately, over the last 15 years, bee colonies have been disappearing, and the reasons are still undetermined.
Also known as a ‘colony collapse’ disorder,’ billions upon millions of honey bees around the globe have left their hives and never return. Honey bees are known due to the “waggle dance,” a figure-eight-shimmy they do in mid-air, to share information about the nearby sources (flowers, water, flowers, or even new locations for hives) with the other bees in their pack. Just 10% of 20,000 species are social, and only a tiny percentage of them construct hives.
5 Most Common Bees In Ohio
1. Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera)
Honey bees are a major pollinator for fruit, flowers, and vegetables. Apis mellifera is a red/brown color with bands of black and orange-yellow rings on their abdomens.
Honey bees are attracted by sweets, specifically sweets made of liquid in bottles of soft drinks. Honey bees have a length of around 15 millimeters in size and have a light brown color.
Honey bees thrive in domestic or natural environments; however, they prefer living in orchards, woodlands, gardens, meadows, and other places.
2. Sweat Bee (Halictidae Spp.)
Halictidae are among the six bees belonging to the order Hymenoptera and are also called sweat bees. Many of them sport metallic-colored green bodies, with stripes of yellow or red.
These insects collect nectar and pollen from an assortment of common flowers. Sweat bees are tiny and range from 0.125 up to 0.5 inches long. The majority of sweat bees live in the ground and are found in vegetable gardens, fields, roadside grasslands, roadsides, decaying wood, and plant.
3. Mason Bee (Osmia spp.)
Mason bees are gorgeous, mild native bees that are also great pollinators. They have black bodies as well as an iridescent dark blue sheen. They consume nectar and pollen throughout their lives while they hunt.
They measure approximately 3/8 to 5/8 inches in length. They are nesting in tunnels, like the ones left by wood-boring beetles or branches of the brief.
4. Long-Horned Bee (Melissodes spp.)
Long-horned Bees’ name is derived from their males’ distinctive and extremely long antennae. Long-horned insects are big and hairy, with particularly hairy hind legs used to collect pollen.
They take in a wide range of flowers, including bramble bugle and Comfrey. The long-horned species is generally between 9 and 15 millimeters in length. Habitats include coastal grasslands, soft cliff faces, heathland edges, woodland rides, and clearings.
Read More:-
- 13 Types Of Freshwater Puffer Fish (With Pictures)
- 13 Types Of Fish In The Gulf Of Mexico (With Pictures)
- 14 Types Of Blue Fish (With Pictures)
5. Squash Bee (Peponapis Pruinosa)
It is an unusual insect due to its natural habitat in most squash farms in Michigan. The squash bee’s general size and appearance resemble honeybees. Females eat the flowers of squashes and gourds and pumpkins.
Squash bees construct nests on the ground. They are individuals and do not reside in colonies; however, they are occasionally sociable. The nest is composed of chambers that are feet or two deep in the soil.
4 Popular Ground Nesting Bees In Ohio
6. Mining Bee (Andrena spp.)
Andrena is a genus of honeybees that belongs to the family of Andrenidae. Depending on the kind, the bees could be shiny or dark. Like other types of bees but not like wasps, they are omnivores and consume floral pollen and nectar.
Adult females measure 14.5 up to 17 millimeters, and males who are adults measure between 12 and 17 millimeters. Mining bees don’t have a strong sting and are a good choice for your garden. It’s a species of bee that creates colonies in tunnels that are underground.
7. Polyester Bees (Colletes Spp.)
Polyester bees are amongst the first bees you can see in the spring and are the last bees to be observed in the autumn. They’re predominantly black, with yellow or white marks on their face, the thorax, legs and thorax. They are fast-moving and quite large (about 1 inch in length). They are solitary bees that nest in tunnels within the soil.
8. Shiny Green Bees (Augochlora Pura)
Augochlora pure (Say), also called the gold-colored sweat bee, is single, and they’re all sparkling bright green. Adult Augochlora pura, a purified form of pollen, collects nectar from flowers.
Males and females are about 8 millimeters long—Pura nests in decaying wood in forests and even in woodpiles within suburbia. Augochlora pura adult scavengers forage mostly in the woods and fields adjacent to prairies.
9. Dull Green Sweat Bees (Lasioglossum (Dialictus)
The sweat bee Genus Lasioglossum is the biggest in all of the genera for bees comprising more than 1700 species across many subgenera across the globe.
Lasioglossum is identical to Halictus; however, they can be distinct by the position of hairbands and the abdominal segments. The plants provide nectar and pollen as food.
Females typically vary from 4.7-5 millimeters in length. Lasioglossum honeybees are present in all agricultural habitats as well as natural habitats.
Interesting Further Reading:-
- 11 Different Types Of Fish In Myrtle Beach (With Pictures)
- 13 Rare Types Of Betta Fish (With Pictures)
- 14 Different Types Of Bees In Ohio (With Pictures)
5 Popular Cavity Nesting Bees
10. Leafcutter Bees (Megachile spp.)
Megachilid genera are generally identified as mason bees and leafcutter bees. Leafcutters are comparable in dimensions to honeybees and their habit of carrying bits of leaf back to the nest.
The size and shape of honeybee can vary from 5 mm to 24 millimeters. Leafcutting bees build these nests in soil, inside holes in wood, and the stems of plants. The bees that build these nests in the ground, in holes (usually caused by other bugs) in wood, and on the branches of plants.
11. Bumble Bees (Bombus spp.)
Bumblebees of all kinds belong to the Genus Bombus within the family of Apidae. Bumblebees have a distinct color, with a distinctive black and yellow. They eat nectar and pollen and produce honey.
The largest one is Bombus, the queen Bombus that can grow at 1.6 inches. Bumblebees build hives that are made of underground holes by larger animals. They reside in regions with temperate temperatures.
12. Large Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa Virginia)
Carpenter bees that are large can be distinguished from bumblebees due to the lack of pubescent on the abdomen’s dorsum. They resemble Bumblebees, but they have naked and shiny backs. Carpenter bees feed on nectar and pollen.
The large Carpenter bees can grow to become large insects, typically ranging from 20mm and larger. Xylocopa Virginia, often known as the eastern carpenter bee, extends across all Eastern United States and into Canada.
13. Small Carpenter Bees (Ceratina spp.)
The carpenter bees of small size, Ceratina, make up one of the two genera of the family Xylocopinae. They are black and have blue, bluish or green highlights. Carpenter bees don’t eat wood but nectar and plant pollen.
The bees are not more than 3/8 inches in length. They are hard-working excavators, gnawing through dead pith and wood to create their nests. They live on every continent except Antarctica.
14. Masked Bees (Hylaeus spp.)
Masked bees reside within urban environments, forests, heaths, and woodlands. Their diverse species are black, with bright white or yellow marks on their bodies. They collect pollen and nectar to feed the young.
Masked Bees are slim and are less than 10 millimeters in length. Masked Bees construct nests within holes with a narrow diameter within Bee Hotels and are found most often feeding on goldenrod, Queen Anne’s Lace, and carrot blossoms.
Must Know:-
