Apidae

Long-tongued Bees

John Pickering & Sharon Ballew
University of Georgia, Athens

Honey bee, Apis mellifera
Honey bee, Apis mellifera

Last updated: 4 October, 2005

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Overview

  • Carpenter Bees
    Carpenter bees are found throughout the world. They are very diverse in size and general characteristics, ranging from the very small, almost hairless bees of the Ceratina genus to the larger, stiffly bristled Xylocopa bees. The Xylocopa and the Ceratina are the only native North American genera. Xylocopinae are unique in that they store food for the adults to feed on. Like many members of the family Apidae, they are a social bee, with more than one adult at one nest site. The bees in the Xylocopinae make their homes in pithy stems, or they will chew into wood to create chambered or nonchambered nests. Ceratina bees prefer to build their nests in plant material whereas the Xylocopa will nest in dead or live logs and other types of wood.

    According to Michener, there are four tribes and fourteen genera of the Xylocopinae. They are found in tropical and temperate regions worldwide. Similarities in size and coloration makes it easy for one to confuse the Xylocopinae with the bumblebees. However, unlike bumblebees, Xylocopinae have no regulated caste system with workers, queens and drones. The adult bees are either female or male; there is no specific worker class, although young adults stay with their mother for a period of time, often until they are mature. Although they do not have a specialized social structure like the bumblebees, they do have divisions of labor within their "family."

Index

Kinds

  • Apinae - Bumble, Honey, Orchid & Stingless honey bees
  • Nomadinae
  • Xylocopinae - Carpenter bees

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Identification

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Photographs

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Phylogeny

Taxonomic Category Scientific Name Common Name
Phylum Arthropoda Arthropods
Class Insecta Insects
Order Hymenoptera Hymenoptera
Superfamily Apoidea Bees & sphecoid wasps

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Geographic distribution

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Links to other sites

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References

  • Gauld, Ian D. and Barry Bolton (Eds.) 1988. The Hymenoptera. British Museum (Natural History). Oxford Univeristy Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-858521-7.
  • Michener, Charles D. 2000. The Bees of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. ISBN 0-8018-6133-0.
  • Mitchell, Theodore B. Bees of the Eastern United States Volume II. The North Carolina Agricultural Experient Station, North Carolina.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Becca Haynes for help photographing bees and developing the bee pages, Nancy Lowe for bee illustrations, Cecil Smith and the University of Georgia's Natural History Museum Entomology Collections for loaning us specimens, and Sam Droege, USGS-BRD, for support and encouragement.

Discover Life | All Living Things | Identification Guides | Insecta | Hymenoptera | Apoidea | Apidae