Colletidae

Cellophane bees

The Colletidae

Colletes are the size of honeybees, with soft velvety hair on their head and thorax, and distinct dark-and-white banded abdomen. Unlike honeybees they are solitary ground nesters, distinguished by a clear cellophane like polyester compound that they secrete to line their nests making them waterproof. Cellophane bees lack scopae or corbiculae, and they transport nectar and pollen back to their nests in their mouths. They tend to nest gregariously, close to floral resources, wherever there is a patch of bare crumbly soil.

Two species of Colletes have been found in the San Juan islands, fulgidus and kincaidii. Several species in the genus Hylaeus of this bee family have been reported in the Gulf Islands and Vancouver, but not yet here.

Colletes fulgidus, Lopez Island

Colletes nests

Iceberg Point,

Lopez Island