Bee Facts...
- Basic Bee Biology
- Bee Diversity in Canada
- Why we Need Bees
- How You Can Help Bees
What Are Bees?
Bees are a a group of wasps that have given up the predaceous lifestyle of feeding their offspring with animal protein (e.g., mostly other arthropods), instead provisioning their nests with plant derived protein, mainly in the form of pollen. Thus bees are dependent on flowers, and this relationship has made them the most important pollinators. Like their other wasp relatives, nest building bees will excavate nests in the ground or other materials (e.g., decomposing wood) or will occupy pre-existing cavities. Nest building bees range in sociality from entirely solitary species (i.e., most bee species) to more complex levels of communalism and nest entrance sharing, to the development of castes (i.e., non-reporducing female workers and queens) with annual or perrenial colony cycles. Other bees are cleptoparasites, with females using the nests and provisions of host bees to rear their own young.
Latest Buzz
2019
August 30, 2019
Zachary M. Portman, Michael C. Orr, and Terry Griswold published a review and updated classification of pollen gathering behavior in bees
A review and updated classification of pollen gathering behavior in bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)
August 27, 2019
Thomas M. Onuferko, Petr Bogusch, Rafael R. Ferrari and Laurence Packer published on the phylogeny and biogeography of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Epeolus with a cophylogenetic analysis with its host bee genus Colletes
August 19, 2019
Brenna Decker and Alexandra Harmon-Threatt publish on the effects of burn season on bee and plant communities
Growing or dormant season burns: the effects of burn season on bee and plant communities
August 15, 2019
Hollis Woodard and colleagues publish on the effect of diet and nutritional status on queen bumble bees
August 14, 2019
Susan Chan and colleages published on the risks of systemic pesticides in agricultural soils to ground nesting bees
August 2019
Brian N. Danforth, Robert L. Minckley and John L. Neff published their new book The Solitary Bees. Biology, Evolution, Conservation
The Solitary Bees. Biology, Evolution, Conservation
August 2019
Irena Valterova and colleagues publish a review of bumble bee male pheromones
Sexual attraction: a review of bumblebee male pheromones
July 19, 2019
Hanna Chole and colleagues published a review of regulation and mechanisms determining body size in bees, and its relationship to social organization
Body size variation in bees: regulation, mechanisms, and relationship to social organization
July 2019
Paul Williams and colleagues published a revision of the bumble bee subgenus Alpinobombus
June 2019
Victoria MacPhail and colleagues publish on citizen science and assessment of the American Bumble Bee, Bombus pensylvanicus in Canada
January 24, 2019
Andrew M.R. Bennett, Cory S. Sheffield, and Jeremy R. deWaard publish a summary paper on the Hymenoptera of Canada
January 10, 2019
Kirsten Palmier and Cory Sheffield published occurrence data for Bombus impatiens in the prairie provinces, and its implications
2018
December 2018
Cory Sheffield and Jennifer Heron publish an annotated checklist of the bees of British Columbia
The bees of British Columbia (Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Apiformes)
November 5, 2018
Michael Orr, James Pitts and Terry Griswold published a revision of the Anthophora subgenus Micranthophora
June 9, 2018
Barry Hicks and colleagues published on the threat of pathogen spillover to native bumble bees inside that venture inside commercial coloonies of Bombus impatiens
May 23, 2018
Sophie Cardinal published a book chapter on global bee diversity through geological time
Bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) diversity through time
May 18, 2018
Manuela Sann and colleagues published a phylogenomic anaysis on the sister group to the bees
Phylogenomic analysis of Apoidea sheds new light on the sister group of bees
May 12, 2018
The FAO's Global Action on Pollination Services for Sustainable Agriculture published an important two-volume compendium on cultivated plant pollination.
The pollination of cultivated plants: A compendium for practitioners
May 8, 2018
Thomas M. Onuferko (York University) published a key to the species of the cleptoparasitic bees of the genus Epeolus in the Nearctic region
May 7, 2018
Dino McMahon and colleagues published a review article on viruses in bees
Emerging Viruses in Bees: From Molecules to Ecology
March 1, 2018
Kyle Martins and colleagues published on how croplands and surrounding landscapes sustain wild bees
Complementary crops and landscape features sustain wild bee communities
April 2018
Cory Sheffield and Jennifer Heron published on a new record of the very rare Macropis Cuckoo Bee, Epeoloides pilosulus, from Alberta, Canada
2017
December 2017
Cory Sheffield and Jennifer Heron published on an unusual specimen of Lasioglossum from British Columbia
October 6, 2017
Cory Sheffield and colleages published on the status of the the DNA barcoding bees in Canada
March 30, 2017
Thomas Onuferko published an online key to the species of the cleptoparasitic bees of the genus Epeolus in Canada. A corrogendum for this work was also published
Cleptoparasitic Bees of the Genus Epeolus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Canada
Corrigendum: Cleptoparasitic Bees of the Genus Epeolus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Canada
2016
February 11 2016
Cory Sheffield and colleagues published on the biogeography and designatable units of Bombus occidentalis and B. terricola for conservation status assessment
2015
December 2015
Jennifer Heron and Cory Sheffield published on the first record of a member of the Lasioglossum petrellum species group from Canada
First record of the Lasioglossum (Dialictus) petrellum species group in Canada