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Bumblebees
Tribe Bombinii
Large, stout, heavy bumblebees are easy to recognize, as a group. Each queen produces a generation of daughters that help her build a shallowly buried nest of connected round, waxy chambers, like a cluster of grapes.
Long-horned bees
Tribe Eucerini
The name of this Tribe comes from the Greek term kératos (”horns”). Only male bees haveconspicuously long antennae, however. Nests are solitary and scattered.
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Eucera frater,
Iceberg Point,
Lopez Island
Anthophorabomboides,Lopez IslandDigger beesTribe Anthophorini
Digger bees look like bumblebees but usually have a yellow clypeus (lower face), and nest in large uncoordinated aggregations of mudcapped tubular burrows in soft bluffs.
Nomad bees
Tribe Nomadini
Nomad bees are kleptoparasites on the nests of other bees. The Epeolini mimic their hosts, whereas Nomads look like small black and red wasps. The taxonomy of Nomads is unsettled but at least three species are commonly seen in the San Juan Islands.
Nomada articulata,
American Camp,
San Juan Island
Carpenter bees
Tribe Xyclocopini
These solitary bees have large mandibles that enable them to chew tunnels in the stems of shrubs or trunks of trees for their nests. They are most abundant in warmer, drier regions of North America; only one genus (Ceratina) and two species are known in the Salish Sea.
Ceratina acantha,
Lopez Island
Cuckoo bees
Tribe Epeolini
The Epeolini are kleptoparasites that invade the solitary ground nests of leafcutter bees and replace the eggs with their own. At least three species are documented in the islands, usually found in dry coastal meadows.
Epeolus americanus,Iceberg Point,
Lopez Island
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