• Seasonality
Extracted from 2017 Bees of Maryland: A Field Guide http://bio2.elmira.edu/fieldbio/beesofmarylandbookversion1.pdf

A radically different bee from our native species. No close relatives inhabit the Western Hemisphere. Lifestyle unique and not mirrored by any native species. Morphology equally unique.

Field Marks: ♀♂Long hairs emerging from eyes, Abdomen has variable transverse bands of amber and dark brown integument and pale hair. Abdomen, amber bands primarily on first two segments transitioning to all dark segments at tip (note, it is not uncommon to find bees with NO amber in abdomen). Abdomen, pale hair bands largely on segments 3–5, note hairs bands located on base of segments not rims like most other bees. Wings held above back, edges touching but rarely overlapping. ♀Hind legs broadened, tibia and basitarsus flat and very wide, tibia with no hairs in the shiny central portion. ♂Almost never seen, feeds only in hive on honey, does not visit flowers, leaves only to mate and immediately perish. Only Maryland bee where eyes meet atop its head.

Flight Season: Throughout.

Size Relative to Honey Bee: 1X.

Position of Wings Feeding on Flowers: Held parallel to one another over back, often touching but overlapping little.

Location of Pollen Carrying Hairs: Carries pollen as a mix of pollen and nectar in a ball on outside of hind tibia

Similar Genera: Colletes - The Spring Group of Colletes are about the same size as Honey Bees, similarly visit blooming trees and shrubs, and are roughly the same tan/brown coloration of darker Honey Bees. Lacks the hairy eyes, wide bare hind tibia/basitarsus, and lap their wings over their back. Face with long hair, abdomen often with bands of pale hair on rim.

Nest: Hives in hollow trees, building cavities, and hives.

Flowers: Visits a wide variety of flowers.

• Hosts
• Associates

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• Jerry A. Payne, USDA ARS, www.invasive.org
• Australian Faunal Directory
• Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society

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The following material taken with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1962. Bees of the Eastern United States, Volume II. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. Tech. Bul. No.152, 557 p.

Apis is an Old World genus, and none of the species is native to the Americas. Of the four included species, only the domesticated honey bee, Apis mellifera, has been introduced into North America, but it is widespread throughout the continent.

In contrast with the bumblebees, the species of Apis are perennially social, colonies persisting over the winter from one season to the next for periods of three or four years. Moreover, these is, no intergradation in size or structure between the queen and the worker caste, and queens never engage in foraging activities or nest building. Queens and workers are genetically similar; the development of a fertilized egg into one or the other dependent upon the size of the cell and the character of the food supplied the larva by the workers. Males or drones, of course, result from unfertilized eggs, as in most other Hymenoptera, but they also require large for the development of the larva.

In Apis the hind tibial spurs are absent, the jugal lobe of the hind wing is present, and the marginal cell of the front wing is narrow and elongate, its tip approaching the apex of the wing. The head is characterized by the densely hairy eyes, while the labrum is transverse, broad and very short.

• ZomBee Watch" -- Report bees parasitized by Apocephalus borealis, the Zombie Fly.

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• National Science Foundation