Indigo Snakes in north Florida
Indigo release ’24: Cola River, Zooniverse, and 41...
Wild born indigo snakes found at Apalachicola Bluffs...
2023 Update On The Reintroduction Of Eastern Indigo...
Latest Indigo Snake Release the Largest at Apalachicola...
Searching for Indigo Snakes in the Apalachicola Bluffs...
Snakes, Eagles, & Gopher Tortoises at the E.O....
The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About the WFSU Ecology Blog
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • Secrets of the Seep: A Voyage into the Mysteries of Ocean Carbon
    • Finding the First Floridians: Underwater Archeologists Uncover Florida’s Prehistory
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Wasps of North Florida: The Bad, the Ugly, and the (yes, really) Good
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources

Bees of North Florida and South Georgia

by Rob Diaz de Villegas August 18, 2020
Click to subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog

This is a collection of bees I’ve photographed in my yard, mostly, as well as on shoots around our area. Florida has over 300 native species of bees, and there are over 500 in Georgia. This page will not list all of them! Instead, you’ll see the bees that might commonly visit our yards, and maybe a couple that are less common. I’ll keep adding as I photograph new species, or witness interesting behaviors.

Even if you don’t see a photo of the specific bee you saw in your yard, maybe you’ll see the type. Sometimes, the best we can do is identify a genus of bees, or a tribe. Some bees need several detailed photos, or a microscope, to differentiate between related species. This page organizes bees into their families. So you might be able to identify that you have a leafcutter or a sweat bee.

We’ve collected some information to help you attract bees to your home garden. Click to learn more about building a habitat through bee-friendly plants, space for nesting, and even a little water for them to drink.


Pollinators of a North Florida Backyard

WFSU Ecology Producer Rob Diaz de Villegas has extensively photographed insects in his yard and other north Florida locales. The following pages include the most common species you might see in your yard, which is a surprisingly diverse lot, as well as a few rare or specialized forest species.

  • Bees of north Florida
  • Wasps of north Florida
  • Flies of north Florida

Apidae

Carpenter bees, bumblebees, longhorn bees, cuckoo bees, and honeybees

Subfamily Xylocopinae (Carpenter Bees)

Carpenter bees excavate their nests in dead wood, which, in our yards, can mean fences or any other (usually unfinished) wood structures in your yard. Understandably, some people regard them as pests. If you can tolerate a few perfectly round holes in a fence post, they are pollinators, and their nests are used by other pollinators as well.

Four-toothed mason wasp cavity in a wooden handrail.
Former carpenter bee cavity in a wooden handrail, occupied by a four-toothed mason wasp.

We talked to Dr. Rachel Mallinger, assistant professor of Entomology at the University of Florida, about Florida native bees, and she had a couple of things to say about carpenter bees. They do bore into wood, which concerns homeowners. Dr. Mallinger points out that carpenter bees nest in soft, usually decaying wood. The main structure of a house is constructed of hardwood, whereas trim, railings, and fences are made from soft wood. If the main structure isn’t decaying, carpenters may nest in the softwood structures.

Leaving decaying wood in brush piles, or otherwise incorporated into the landscape, offers an alternative nesting location for carpenter bees. Learn more in our post on helping nesting bees.

Carpenter bee nest in old, but very special, stick.
Carpenter bee nest in an old, but very special (to my kids), stick. I collected their “special sticks” into a bundle, which I decorated with other found nature objects they had collected over the years.

Dr. Mallinger also spoke about male carpenter bee’s tendency to fly at humans. It’s aggressive, and unsettling when they get in your face, but male carpenter bees have no stinger.

One last note about carpenter bees. They look, at first, like large bumblebees. The easiest way to differentiate between the two is the abdomen. As I tell the kids, bumblebees have fuzzy “butts,” whereas carpenter bees have smooth abdomens. But, as we’ll see below, there is one other bee species in the area that mimics carpenter bees and their “smooth butts.”

Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica)

Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) on a blazingstar in the Munson Sandhills.
Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) on a blazingstar in the Munson Sandhills.

There are two species we’re likely to see in our area. The males of both species are similar, though the southern carpenter bee has a purplish abdomen while the eastern is pure black.

Pollen covered eastern carpenter bee visits its nest cavity.
Cracked carpenter bee pupa having recently sent forth a new adult bee.
Left- pollen-covered eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) enters its nest in a fence post. Right, an eastern carpenter bee has molted out of its larval shell, emerging as an adult from the same nest.

Southern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa micans)

Southern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa micans) on winged loosestrife.
Southern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa micans) on winged loosestrife.

Here we see the female southern carpenter bee, which is all black with a purplish tinge. Female eastern carpenter bees, on the other hand, look much like their males.

Southern carpenter bee, dying.
Southern carpenter bee near a nest on an old branch incorporated into a craft project. It looks like it has bits of a shell on its back; perhaps it’s freshly molted.

Subfamily Apinae (Honey, Bumble, Longhorn, Orchid, and Digger Bees)

Bumblebees (Genus Bombus)

Bumblebees are both common and conspicuous among our native bees. Not only are they widespread, but are large enough to be noticed even on higher-up tree flowers.

They are social bees. In the fall, queens and males leave the nest and mate. The queen is the only bumblebee to survive through the winter, carrying next year’s colony within her as she lies dormant in leaf litter. In the spring, she emerges and creates a new colony. The leaves we let lie in the winter harbor numerous insects, such as dormant adults, larvae, and pupae.

Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens)

Eastern bumblebee rests under a salvia leaf.
Resting under a salvia leaf
Bumblebee on a cutleaf coneflower.
On a cutleaf coneflower
Bumblebee pollinates salvia flower.
On salvia flower

Here is the bumblebee species you’re most likely to see in your north Florida yard. It’s a ground-nesting species, where the American bumblebee nests above ground.

Note the fuzzy abdomen and pollen sacs on the hindmost legs.

Eastern bumblebee appear to take pollen from a spent salvia flower.
Eastern bumblebee appears to take nectar from a spent salvia flower.

American bumblebee (Bombus pensylvanicus)

Male American bumblebee (Bombus pennsylvanicus) takes a rest under a wildflower in the Munson Sandhills. Males of the species have a nearly all yellow abdomen.
A male American bumblebee (Bombus pensylvanicus) takes a rest under a wildflower in the Munson Sandhills.

American bumblebees were once the most common bumblebee species in the US. But they have declined over the last several decades, and are now federally listed as Vulnerable. Unlike other bumblebees, they nest above ground. In our segment on them last year, they had taken over a purple martin gourd.

They are larger than eastern bumblebees, and have a striped yellow patch on their abdomens.

American bumblebee (Bombus pennsylvanicus) on purple coneflower.
American bumblebee (Bombus pennsylvanicus) on purple coneflower.
The American Bumblebee in the WFSU Ecology Blog

In August 2019, we visited a beekeeper who had taken in an American bumblebee nest.

Inside of an American bumblebee colony. Note the brood cells at the center.
Inside of an American bumblebee colony. Note the brood cells at the center.

Southern plains bumblebee (Bombus fraternus)

Southern plains bumblebee (Bombus fraternus) visits a narrowleaf sunflower.
Southern plains bumblebee (Bombus fraternus) visits a narrowleaf sunflower in my yard.

Here’s a large bee that first visited our yard one day in October of 2022. The southern plains bumblebee has been listed as globally endangered by the IUCN after drastic declines in its population in recent decades. The Xerces Society predicts that if the species continues its current rate of decline, it could go extinct within 80-90 years.

Its native habitat is an intact prairie, though it is found in urban habitats. I live near downtown Tallahassee, and in 2024 it became a regular visitor to our flowers. The bee is in decline, but it has healthier numbers in the southeast than in the northern parts of its range. While they’re not the most common bumblebee species in Tallahassee or the surrounding area, they are well-represented in town and in the forest.

Southern plains bumblebee on summer farewell (Dalea pinnata) in the Munson Sandhills.
Southern plains bumblebee on summer farewell (Dalea pinnata) in the Munson Sandhills.

Two-spotted bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus)

The two-spotted bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus) on Ohio spiderwort.

This bee is so named because of the “two spots” on its abdomen. To me, it looks like a yellow W on its otherwise black bottom side. It looks very much similar to the common eastern bumblebee, so when I see a bee that looks either I try to angle myself to see that marking.

The time of year might also help when differentiating the two bumblebees. From iNaturalist observations in Leon County, I see that this is a bee whose numbers spike in April and is rarely seen past June (throughout its whole range it spikes in July). They are also far less numerous than common eastern bumblebees, whose numbers climb until peaking in September/ October.

Tribe Eucerini (Longhorn Bees)

Genus Melissodes

Longhorn bee identified as genus Melissodes. Species in this genus are often difficult to ID.

Many of the Melissodes and Epimelissodes (formerly Svastra) genus longhorn bees look similar, and are difficult to distinguish from each other using only photos. In recent months, though (writing in March of 2025), I’ve had more of my longhorn observations on iNaturalist receive more specific identifications. Part of the reason for this is that, whenever certain types of bees have many similar-looking species, I photograph and upload as many as I can to iNaturalist.

Subgenus Melissodes

A longhorn bee in the genus Melissodes, subgenus Melissodes visits a purple coneflower. Bee researchers on naturalist were un able to identify a specific species from this photo.
A longhorn bee in the genus Melissodes, subgenus Melissodes visits a purple coneflower. Bee researchers on naturalist were unable to identify a specific species from this photo.

I have had a few observations marked as subgenus Melissodes. This includes several similar-looking species, such as the common longhorn (Melissodes communis) and Tepanaec longhorn (Melissodes tepaneca). The subgenus also includes the two-spotted longhorn, a common and easy to identify bee.

Two-spotted long-horned bee (Melissodes bimaculatus)

Two-spotted longhorn bee on beautyberry flower.
Two-spotted longhorn bee on beautyberry flower.
Two-spotted Long-horned Bee (Melissodes bimaculatus) on red salvia.
Two-spotted Long-horned Bee (Melissodes bimaculatus) on red salvia, June 2019.
Two-spotted Long-horned Bee (Melissodes bimaculatus) visits, from left to right: beautyberry, scarlet sage, and lance-leaved Coreopsis.

This is a bee I see in my yard from mid-May through early July. It feeds off a large variety of flowers of different shapes and sizes, hanging from salvia, pentas, or fanpetal flowers, or sitting on larger tickseed and coneflower flowers. And it loves beautyberry flowers. This generalist diet might account, in part, for their wide range as a species, covering half of the United States.

In 2023, I started seeing two-spotted longhorns in April. As there were no iNaturalist observations for it in April in Leon County, I added it. Those observations add data on seasonality and range that might be helpful to researchers. In 2023 I also saw a male for the first time. It looks like it has a blonde dye job on its head and legs:

Male two-spotted longhorn bee on purple coneflower..
Male two-spotted longhorn bee.

Tepanec longhorn (Melissodes tepaneca)

Tepanec longhorn bee (Melissodes tepaneca) hovers near summer farewell (Dalea pinnata) in the Munson Sandhills.
Tepanec longhorn bee (Melissodes tepaneca) hovers near summer farewell (Dalea pinnata) in the Munson Sandhills.

This bee has a range that extends from the Appalachians to Mexico, and down into Florida. It’s a widespread range, and yet, if you look at its iNaturalist observation map, its observations are sparse and widely spaced apart. It makes me wonder if this had once been a more common bee.

Tepanec longhorn bee
Tepanec longhorn bee

Subgenus Apomelissodes

During the 2023 City Nature Challenge, I took my kids to the Munson Sandhills to wrack up observations. I found a few on just this one prickly pear flower:

Prickly pear flower (genus Opuntia) visited by several insects.
Prickly pear flower (genus Opuntia) visited by several insects.

I was curious about the bee, but it went ignored by the iNat bee curators for two years. Then, in the March of 2025, it got interesting.

Longhorn bee in the genus Melissodes, subgenus Apomelissodes.
Longhorn bee in the genus Melissodes, subgenus Apomelissodes.

You’ll notice how many longhorn bees are identified by subgenus, which narrows its identity down from genus. Apomelissodes bees are all rare, and this might be one of the rarest of those species: Melissodes mitchelli. M. mitchelli is a specialist in prickly pear flowers, so it’s a strong likelihood. The photo had the bee guys excited, but it wasn’t enough for a species-level ID. You’d better believe that I’ll be back in the Munson Sandhills this April when the prickly pears are in bloom.

Genus Epimelissodes / Svastra

Many bees in the genus Svastra have been reclassified as Epimelissodes. This includes bees that had previously been listed on this page as Svastra.

Subgenus Epimelissodes

A bee in the Svastra genus, subgenus Epimelissodes on beach sunflower, at the UF/ IFAS Leon County Extension demonstration garden.
A bee in the Epimelissodes genus, subgenus Epimelissodes on beach sunflower, at the UF/ IFAS Leon County Extension demonstration garden.

I’m pretty sure that both the bee above is Svastra, possibly Svastra aegis, the sandhills longhorn. I’m in doubt about the one below, it might be a Svastra or a common longhorn (Melissodes communis). These and a couple of other longhorns in our area look similar.

Either a common longhorn bee (Melissodes communis), or a sandhills longhorn bee.
Either a common longhorn bee (Melissodes communis), or a sandhills longhorn bee (Svastra aegis).

Sandhills longhorn bee (Epimelissodes aegis)

After years of photographing longhorn bees in my yard, I received an identification for something other than a two-spotted longhorn:

Sandhills longhorn bee (Epimelissodes aegis) on a Bidens alba flower.
Sandhills longhorn bee (Epimelissodes aegis) on a Bidens alba flower.

I live a few miles from the Munson Sandhills, but an area near me must have a similar nesting habitat.

Genus Peponapis (squash bees)

This is one of two genera of longhorn bees to specialize in the flowers of Cucurbita: gourds such as squashes and pumpkins. Xenoglassa is a genus known as the large squash bees.

Pruinose squash bee (Peponapis pruinosa)

Pruinose squash bees in a pumpkin flower.
Pruinose squash bees in a pumpkin flower.

Like the blueberry digger bee, this is a specialist, though I’ve come to find that doesn’t mean they won’t try other flowers. The handful of squash bees observed in Leon County have all been found in May, but that’s a small sample size (half of those were mine from 2023). Throughout their range, they peak in July. I imagine its seasonality is tied to the availability of squash flowers in a particular area.

Pruinose squash bee on purple coneflower, shortly after the last pumpkin flower withered on our vine (thanks to the squash vine borer).
Pruinose squash bee on purple coneflower, shortly after the last pumpkin flower withered on our vine (thanks to the squash vine borer).

Cuckoo Bees (Nomidae)

Cuckoo bees are kleptoparasites, animals that replace the eggs of another animal in the host animal’s nest. Their offspring hatch and eat the pollen collected by the host bee. Because cuckoo bees do not have to provision their own nests, they do not have pollen sacs.

Cuckoo bees have evolved in multiple families of bees, and typically target a specific genus, tribe, or family of bees. Directly below, we have a few species of cuckoo bees in the Apidae family. Scroll down further to find a cuckoo bee in the leafcutter family (Megachilidae).

Genus Triepeolus

Cuckoo bee in the Triepeolus genus.
Cuckoo bee in the Triepeolus genus.

I observed the bee above in Klapp-Phipps Park, and Dr. John Ascher identified it as a member of the Triepeolus genus.

Lunate longhorn-cuckoo bee (Triepeolus lunatus)

Lunate-longhorn cuckoo bee (Triepeolus lunatus)
Lunate-longhorn cuckoo bee (Triepeolus lunatus) on Leavenworth’s coreopsis.

This cuckoo bee lays its eggs with those of the two-spotted longhorn bee, which is common in my yard from mid-May through early July. I only spotted this one once in my yard, in June of 2022, just as I was starting to see multiple longhorns.

Concave longhorn-cuckoo bee (Triepeolus concavus)

a concave longhorn-cuckoo bee (Triepeolus concavus) rests near the entrance of a bee nest.
a concave longhorn-cuckoo bee (Triepeolus concavus) rests near the entrance of a bee nest.

I encountered this bee outside of WFSU in October of 2024. The patchy grass on the side of the station had earlier hosted several dozen mining bees. That was earlier in the year. This bee had been spending time near a ground nest, and sadly I only had a cell phone with me on the daily walks where I encountered it (and was nowhere to be found when I brought out a real camera).

Bugguide says this is a cleptoparasite of Svastra obliqua, the sunflower or oblique longhorn bee. I had seen a longhorn on nearby Bidens alba plants, though I didn’t photograph it. As I write this in early November, I haven’t seen either bee in over a week. But the nest is there, and I’ll keep an eye out for both of them next summer. Many longhorn species are difficult to distinguish from each other, even with a good photo, but an association with a more easily identified bee would help.

Concave longhorn-cuckoo hovers near the entrance of a bee nest.
Concave longhorn-cuckoo hovers near the entrance of a bee nest.

Genus Nomada

A bee in the genus Nomada, lingering near mining bee nests.
A bee in the genus Nomada, lingering near mining bee nests.

I saw this bee in an open area next to WFSU where mining bees nest. The day I first saw mining bees emerge and make nests in 2025, I also saw this nomad bee. This was only a genus-level ID, but the bee flew up next to mining bee nests. Cuckoo bees specialize in specific species or genera of bees, and this must be a mining bee specialist.

Lively cuckoo bee, aka fervid nomad bee (Nomada fervida) 

Fervid nomad bee (Nomada fervida) on Bidens alba.
Fervid nomad bee (Nomada fervida) on Bidens alba.

I first photographed this bee in our yard, in August 2020, and I’ve seen it every year since at about the same time of year. Cuckoo bees lay their eggs with specific bee species, genera, or families; this bee hosts on the Agapostemon genus. In our yard, this is represented by Agapostemon splendens– the brown-winged striped sweat bee. Those have an annual population explosion every August in our yard, when we see the fervid nomad bees that nested with them. In recent years, we’ve had a smaller brood earlier in the spring, also accompanied by fervid nomad bees.

Digger Bees (Tribe Anthophorini)

Blueberry Digger Bee (Habropoda laboriosa)

Blueberry Digger Bee Habropoda laboriosa) on Florida betony flower.
Blueberry Digger Bee (Habropoda laboriosa) on Florida betony flower.

The blueberry digger is an early flying bee, coinciding with the spring bloom season for blueberry species in the southeast. It uses buzz pollination (sonication), vibrations that shake loose pollen. I first saw this one crawling into a ground nest, and later on blueberry flowers. In our yard, they like Florida betony (an early-blooming wildflower that grows as a weed) as much as they like blueberry flowers.

Fun fact- when Proof Brewery hosted WFSU and its partners for 2019’s EcoCitizen Day, it brewed a blueberry beer called Sonicated.

Blueberry Digger Bee (Habropoda laboriosa)  rests on a leaf near blueberry bushes and a patch of Florida betony.
Blueberry Digger Bee (Habropoda laboriosa) rests on a leaf near blueberry bushes and a patch of Florida betony.

Honey Bees (Tribe Apini)

Western honeybee (Apis Mellifera)

I’ve saved these for last in this family because they’re not native, though they are an important agricultural animal. Below is the most common honeybee we might see, the female worker bee. During the weeks that they’re alive, they move through a series of jobs, from tending larvae to, finally, seeking nectar to bring back to the hive, from which they make honey.

Honeybee on Ohio spiderwort.
Honeybee on Ohio spiderwort. Early blooming “weeds,” like spiderwort and Bidens alba, are important nectar sources for bees flying during winter months.

Below are the queen, the mother of all of the bees in the hive, and a drone. Drones are male bees and are distinguished by their larger eyes, which give them the vision they need to spot a queen in flight. Their only job is to find a queen and mate.

Honeybee queen.
A queen honeybee
Honeybee drone.
Honeybee drone

Honeybees build hexagonal cells in their hives. Some of those cells contain honey, and others larvae. Worker bees tend to the larvae until they’re almost ready to pupate (metamorphose into adults), and then the cells are capped. You can see larvae in the uncapped cells below.

Honeybee larvae in a hive frame. Many are capped, but you can see the larvae in in those that are the uncapped.
Honeybee larvae in a hive frame. Many are capped, but you can see the larvae in the uncapped hexagons.
Honeybees on the Ecology Blog
  • In 2014, we kayaked the Dead Lakes and visited apiaries in the Wewahitchka area. The numerous tupelo swamps between the Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers make this the tupelo honey capital of the world.
  • In 2019, Dr. Lee Bushong and his partner, FAMU Entomology PhD. student Worrel Diedrick took us into their hives. All of the photos of honeybees are from that shoot. They were also raising an American bumblebee colony.

Megachilidae

Leafcutter, mason, and resin bees

This is a family of solitary nesting bees with similar habits. They make use of existing tunnel structures, such as those left by wood-boring beetles or insects that tunnel in the ground. Leaf cutters will, as their name suggests, cut leaves to line these tunnels and build their nests. Mason bees collect sediment to seal their tunnels, much like mason wasps. Resin bees use resin to seal their nests.

Genus Megachile

Carpenter-mimic leafcutter bee (Megachile xylocopoides)

Carpenter-mimic leafcutter bee (Megachile xylocopoides).

With its smooth abdomen and yellow hair, the male carpenter-mimic leafcutter looks much like a smaller carpenter bee. Note the narrower wing shape and flatter abdomen, and the shape of the head compared to the carpenter. The female mimics the female southern carpenter bee, with an all-black body and less hair than the male.

Carpenter-mimic leafcutter bees on the WFSU Ecology Blog
  • We first saw this bee on the Backyard Blog. It was a regular presence in our yard in May and June of 2020. Like a carpenter bee, it was aggressive towards other pollinators in our flower patch, especially wasps.
  • In July of 2020, I saw the female when shooting pollinator footage at Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park.
  • In 2022, both the male and female were regular visitors to the yard over several months. In the fall, a cuckoo leafcutter hung around when the female was in the yard.
Female carpenter-mimic leafcutter visits Brickellia cordifolia.
Leafcutters carry pollen on the undersides of their abdomens.

Petulant leafcutter bee (Megachile petulans)

A leafcutter bee, possibly a Petulant leaf-cutter bee (Megachile petulans)
Petulant leafcutter bee (Megachile petulans)

Here are two very similar-looking leafcutters. The images above and below come from two different dates at Klapp-Phipps Park, and I had at first thought they were both flat-tailed leafcutter bees. After loading the images into iNaturalist, it appears they might be two different species.

Flat-tailed leafcutter bee (Megachile mendica).

Flat-tailed leafcutter bee (Megachile mendica).

Dr. Ascher confirmed flat-tailed leafcutter (Megachile mendica) for the image below, which was taken in my yard. Looking at images of both bees in Google image searches, and on their Discover Life pages, the differences between flat-tailed and petulant leafcutters seem to be highly technical. Maybe more technical than I’m ready to dive into and learn about for the amount of time I have to write this post; but, like I keep saying, I’ll keep returning to these pages with new photos and any other information I learn.

Resin Bees (Genus Megachile, Subgenus Chelostomoides)

Leafcuter bee on woodland sunflower.
Likely a leafcutter bee.

This is another species of leafcutter I spotted while shooting video in Klapp-Phipps Park in Tallahassee. I couldn’t narrow the ID to anything more specific than genus, which isn’t uncommon for bees. This subgenus of Megachile does not make their nests with leaves, but rather with plant resins. So this is considered a mason bee.

A bee in this subgenus briefly visited our yard in May of 2023. iNaturalist identified it as a bellflower resin bee (Megachile campanulae), a bee not otherwise observed in Leon County and sparsely in Florida. No one has confirmed it, and this was the only time I saw it in the yard. If I cross paths with it again, perhaps a few different photos at different angles might help with an ID.

A resin bee in the genus Megachile, subgenus Chelostomoides.

Rotund resin bees (Genus Anthidiellum)

Perplexing rotund-resin bee (Anthidiellum perplexum)

Perplexing rotund-resin bee (Anthidiellum perplexum)
Perplexing rotund-resin bee (Anthidiellum perplexum) on sensitive plant

I have only one image of this bee, from a patch of sensitive plants at Klapp-Phipps.

Genus Paranthidium

Southeastern sunflower burrowing-resin bee (Paranthidium jugatorium ssp. lepidum) 

A southeastern sunflower burrowing-resin bee (Paranthidium jugatorium ssp. lepidum) visits goldenrod flowers at Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.
A southeastern sunflower burrowing-resin bee (Paranthidium jugatorium ssp. lepidum) visits goldenrod flowers at Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.

Here’s an oddity I encountered in November of 2024. This is only the second recorded sighting of the bee in Florida, and the other was just a few miles away. The next closest recorded sighting of the bee is hundreds of miles away.

Sunflower burrowing-resin bees nest in sandy soils, lining the walls of its nest with resin. They specialize in flowers of the aster family, which includes sunflowers and goldenrod. I found this bee in a summer burn plot at Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy. Plots within an area of mixed longleaf and shortleaf pine are split into four, each burned in a different season. The summer burn plot had more flowers in bloom in the early fall.

I hope to return to Tall Timbers to better document the bee in 2025.

Leafcutter cuckoo / sharp-tailed bees (Genus Coelioxys)

Cuckoo leafcutter bee (Genus Coelioxys) in the Munson Sandhills region of the Apalachicola National Forest.
Cuckoo leafcutter bee (Genus Coelioxys) in the Munson Sandhills region of the Apalachicola National Forest.

There are different families of cuckoo bees in the Apidae family, listed above. This cuckoo bee is in the Megachilidae family, so it is genetically a leafcutter even if its reproductive habits more closely resemble other, more distantly related cuckoo bees. Like other bees and wasps labeled “cuckoo,” this is a kleptoparasite.

Sharp-tailed bees kleptoparasitize other leafcutter species. Leafcutters make nests from leaf cuttings, and Coelioxys use their sharp tails to break into their nests, killing the eggs in a few cells and replacing them with her own. I started seeing this bee in the yard when it started attracting more leafcutters. They’re often on flowers near to those used by other leafcutters.

Note the lack of pollen sacs, or the pollen-collecting hairs we see under the abdomens of other leafcutters. Because cuckoo bees don’t ned to stock their own nests, they do not need to collect pollen.

Coelioxys dolichos

Coelioxys dolichos, a cuckoo bee in the Megachilidae family.
Coelioxys dolichos, a cuckoo bee in the Megachilidae family.

Per its page on Bugguide, this bee is know to parasitize carpenter-mimic leafcutter bees, which are often in my yard, but not in large numbers. I’ve seen this bee much less frequently in my yard.

Halictidae

Sweat bees

This is a large and diverse family of bees. Sweat bees are some of the smaller bees we see on our flowers, from the gnat-sized Dialictus bees to the somewhat larger and more colorful Augochlorini. They are said to be attracted to human sweat.

Tribe Halictini

Lasioglossum, subgenus Dialictus

Metallic sweat bees (sub-genus Dialictus) on goldenrod.
On Goldenrod
Sweat bee (Lasioglossum, possibly subgenus Dialictus)
On Leavenworth’s Tickseed
A sweat bee in the subgenus Dialictus, peeking out from a fanpetal flower.
In Fanpetal Flower
Various sweat bees in the Dialictus subgenus of the Lasioglossum genus

Dialictus is a subgenus of the Lasioglossum genus, and it has hundreds of very similar-looking bees. They are difficult to differentiate, even with a microscope. I see quite a few in my yard, and some are slightly larger than others. I figure, based on size, that I have at least two species. Or maybe it’s one species with larger males or females?

Dialictus sweat be on a tiny yellow woodsorrel flower.
Dialictus sweat bee on a tiny yellow woodsorrel flower.

Lasioglossum reticulatum

Lasioglossum reticulatum on dewberry flower.
Lasioglossum reticulatum on dewberry flower.

Here’s a Lasioglossum, subgenus Dialictus, bee for which I actually received a species-level identification. It looked not quite like a Poey’s furrow bee, and not quite like other Dialictus. This is a southeastern bee, which, according to its bugguide page, flies from March to November in most of its range, and year-round in Florida.

Lasioglossum floridanum

Lasioglossum floridanum on purple coneflower.
Lasioglossum floridanum on purple coneflower.

In 2023, I made an effort to photograph as many small bees in our yard as possible. Here is a second species-level identification for a Dialictus sweat bee.

Genus Halictus

Poey’s Furrow Bee (Halictus Poeyi)

Poey's furrow bee (Halictus poeyi) on fanpetal flower.
On fanpetal flower
On lance-leaved coreopsis
Two Poey's furrow bees on lance-leaved coreopsis.
Two Poey’s furrow bees on lance-leaved coreopsis.
Three Poey’s furrow bees (Halictus poeyi) on different flowers

Poey’s furrow bees are just a little larger than the largest Dialictus in our yard, and they often use the same flowers. The furrow bees have a more pronounced yellow and black striping on the abdomens, and big, thick heads. These small bees are common in north Florida yards and parks.

Poey's furrow bee (Halictus poeyi)
Female Poey’s furrow bee (Halictus poeyi)

Above is the female Poey’s furrow bee. In 2022, I saw a male for the first time when one attempted to mate with a female.

Poey furrow bees mating.

You can see the female, left, has a larger and less hair-covered head. Also, as in most bee species, the female collects pollen to bring to a nest, whereas a male has no means to collect pollen. This photo was taken in the fall when furrow bees stop flying and females find a place to lay low during the cold months. Before doing so, they mate, and the female carries the next year’s brood within her. In the spring, she’ll emerge and make a nest.

Male Poey’s furrow bee on Georgia aster, November 2022. Note the small, hair-covered head, and the relative lack of pollen on his body.

Genus Agapostemon

Brown-winged striped sweat bee (Agapostemon splendens)

Brown-winged Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon splendens) on winged loosestryfe.
Male brown-winged striped sweat bee (Agapostemon splendens) on winged loosestryfe.
Brown-winged Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon splendens) on winged loosestrife.
Female brown-winged striped sweat bee (Agapostemon splendens) on winged loosestrife.

The male brown-winged striped sweat bee is unmistakable. In August 2019 and 2020, I saw larger and larger numbers of the males on flower patches in our yard. I saw females, which have a similar green coloring to the Augochlorine bees, as early as June 2020. In years since, the start of the population explosion varies by a couple of weeks, usually coinciding with the late summer blooming of dotted horsemint.

One subtle difference between Agapostemon and Augochlorine bees is the wings. Female brown-winged striped sweat bees have murkier wings than Augochlorine bees. If you scroll up to the photo of the pure green sweat bee, its wings look more like they’re made of glass panes. Another difference is that the female brown-winged striped sweat bee has more pronounced stripes on its abdomen:

Brown-winged striped sweat bee
Brown-winged striped sweat bee

Sweat bees are ground nesters, though they may also nest in rotting wood. In July of 2019, I removed an old wooden bench from the yard, and a green sweat bee flew out. I followed it as it appeared to search the ground for a new nesting area. If you have space for a brush pile in your yard, for a place to put a nice-sized fallen branch to let sit and rot, this is one of a few different insects that would make use of that habitat.

Pure green metallic sweat bee.
Brown-winged striped sweat bee probes the ground around oak leaf litter.

Augochlorini tribe

There are two or three species we’re likely to see in our area, and these are very similar looking. Augochlorine bees are solitary nesters.

Below are a few photos of Augochlorine sweat bees. I’m noticing that very few get species-level confirmations on iNaturalist. One of the bees below has a deep blue color, but that’s a normal color variation for these bees. They also resemble the female brown-winged striped-sweat bee (which we’ll see next), but those have a few features that make them easier to identify.

Blue sweat bee.
Blue sweat bee.
Pure green metallic sweat bee
Pure green metallic sweat bee

Pure green sweat bee (Augochlora pura)

Pure green sweat bee on red salvia seeds.
Pure green sweat bee on red salvia seeds.

The photo above was submitted to iNaturalist and confirmed to be a pure green sweat bee (Augochlora pura). Another possibility in our area is the metallic-epauletted sweat bee (Augochloropsis metallica).

Andrenidae

Mining bees

Andrena genus

Mining bees are early flying bees, feeding on nectar from flowering trees such as Carolina cherry laurels, which bloom in the late winter/ early spring.

Mining bee on a nest at the Grove Museum.
Mining bee on a nest at the Grove Museum.
Mining bee in the genus Andrena.
Mining bee in the genus Andrena.

In April of 2021, I saw a couple of mining bees returning to or digging new nests under individual leaves scattered on open soil. Although mining bees often nest close together, sometimes in the hundreds, they are solitary nesters. They do not form hives together; social, hive-building bees and wasps are generally more aggressive than solitary nesters.

Mining bee nests in Old Fort Park, Tallahassee.
Mining bee nests in Old Fort Park, Tallahassee.

Barbara’s mining bee (Andrena barbara)

Barbara's mining bee (Andrena barbara) on dewberry flower.
Barbara’s mining bee (Andrena barbara) on dewberry flower.

Here’s a bee I first spotted in March of 2023. I’d been watching honeybees visit dewberry flowers, when I noticed a couple of darker bees. They looked like mining bees, but in our yard, I’d only seen those on tree flowers. This is a Barbara’s mining bee.

It has brighter, yellowish hair compared to other Andrena, but I’ll keep an eye out for further iNaturalist suggestions for this bee. According to its bugguide page, it is often overlooked and misidentified.

Barbara's mining bee (Andrena barbara) on dewberry flower.
Barbara’s mining bee (Andrena barbara) on dewberry flower.

Smooth-faced mining bee (Andrena miserabilis)

Smooth-faced mining bee (Andrena miserabilis) on a Tatsoi green flower.
Smooth-faced mining bee (Andrena miserabilis) on the flower of a Tatsoi green plant.

Here’s a small mining bee I saw in my yard just before our cherry-laurels bloomed.

Subgenus Archiandrena

Mining bee in the genus Andrena
Mining bee in the genus Andrena, subgenus Archiandrena

I saw this bee one time in my yard, tackling some shriveled cherry-laurel flowers on the pavement after the blooms on the tree had faded. A sure sign of a specialist. Dr. Ascher suggested the subgenus Archiandrena in iNaturalist.

Fairy and Goblin Bees (Subtribe Perditinia)

Genus Perdita

Two fairy bees (Perdita genus) on a silkgrass flower in the Munson Sandhills.
Two fairy bees (Perdita genus) on a silkgrass flower in the Munson Sandhills.

In the mining bee family, there is a subfamily of small mining bees, within which there is a subtribe called Perditina– fairy and goblin bees. The bees in the image above, which I had thought were small Lasioglossum sweat bees, are fairy bees in the Perdita genus.

Fairy bee (Perdita genus) on a silkgrass flower.
Fairy bee (Perdita genus) on a silkgrass flower.

Cousinly fairy bee (Perdita consobrina)

A small, striped bee – the cousinly fairy bee (Perdita consobrina), on a sunflower, Munson Sandhills in October 2023.
A small, striped bee – the cousinly fairy bee (Perdita consobrina), on a sunflower, Munson Sandhills in October 2023.

Like the small Lasioglossum sweat bees, fairy bees are small and can be difficult to distinguish from one another. Contrast this bee the fairy bees directly above it on this page. It has a few colorful features – stripes, and a green mouth. Also, note the lack of pollen sacks. This is a male.

I photographed this bee in the Munson Sandhills and uploaded it to iNaturalist, where the site’s top bee curator, Dr. John Ascher identified it. It’s one of only two observations of this tiny bee, and when I went to read more, I found little information about it. This, to me, is the joy of photographing insects and using iNaturalist. The sheer number of insects in the world makes it so that many of them are little understood. This includes insects you may see in your yard. When you take the time to see them, capture an image, and share that image on a platform where researchers can see it and know where you found it, you are providing valuable visual data that can further our understanding of the insect and the habitat it inhabits.

Colletidae

Plasterer- aka polyester- bees

Cellophane Bees (Colletes genus)

Long-faced cellophane bee (Colletes longifacies)

Cellophane bee (Colletes genus), possibly Sandhills cellophane bee, on a blazingstar flower.
Cellophane bee (Colletes genus), likely long-faced cellophane bee, on a blazingstar flower in the Munson Sandhills.

Plasterer bees are solitary ground nesters that line their nests with a secretion that resembles cellophane. The substance is a natural polyester, and so plasterer bees are also called polyester bees.

Cellophane bees are a genus of bees (Colletes) in the plasterer bee family (Colletidae). The image above hasn’t yet gotten a species-level identification in iNaturalist. One likely option is sandhills cellophane bee, as I spotted this one in a sandhill habitat, and the species is one of a couple of Colletes species observed in the Florida panhandle.

Edit 10-28-21: It looks like this is a long-faced cellophane bee (Colletes longifacies), based on an identification by bee researcher Dr. John Ascher. This central/ north Florida endemic, he says, is “Historically overlooked due to late flight season.” As Dr. Ascher notes, Colletes longifacies is a “rarely recorded, localized, and specialized species.” It has previously been recorded on clusterleaf blazingstar, a fall-blooming wildflower.

Long-faced cellophane bee on a blazingstar flower in the Munson Sandhills.
Long-faced cellophane bee (Colletes longifacies) on a blazingstar flower in the Munson Sandhills.

Rufous-backed cellophane bee (Colletes thoracicus)

Rufous-backed cellophane bee (Colletes thoracicus) on cherry laurel flower.
Rufous-backed cellophane bee (Colletes thoracicus) on cherry laurel flower.

I saw this bee on March 1, 2023, on a cherry laurel tree overhanging our yard. According to bugguide.net, this bee flies in January and February in Florida. Based on this observation, though, I’d say that as close to Georgia as Tallahassee is, that here the bee flies a little bit into March.

Rufous-backed cellophane bee (Colletes thoracicus) on cherry laurel flower.
Rufous-backed cellophane bee (Colletes thoracicus) on cherry laurel flower.

Sandhills cellophane bee (Colletes ultravalidus)

A sandhills cellophane bee (Colletes ultravalidus) emerges from its nesting burrow.
A sandhills cellophane bee (Colletes ultravalidus) emerges from its nesting burrow.

This bee was first described in 2016 and has only been observed in a handful of locations in north Florida, and one location in Mississippi. One reason people don’t see much of the bee is that it only flies for a short time, and keeps to a specific habitat.

Its few observations have been on or near blueberry bushes, specifically bushes in sandhill habitats near cypress wetland areas. A blueberry relative, climbing fetterbush, climbs up cypress trees, and blueberry bushes thrive near the edge of the ponds. The sand there is too wet for ground-nesting bees to excavate, and this bee needs deep, open sand to make a nest.

A nesting site for the sandhills cellophane bee in the Apalachicola National Forest. There are abundant blueberry bushes between a cypress-lined lake and a sandhill with open sandy areas.

Blueberries in north Florida bloom in February and March, and that’s when you would see this bee flying. Males also fly in December, making it one of the few native bees in the air in winter. The best way to find the bees themselves is to find their nests on sandhills. They are about three inches across, with an opening about a centimeter across (yes, I mixed metric and standard). If you see the bee, upload your photos to iNaturalist to add observations and help researchers track the species.

Sandhills cellophane bee nesting burrow
Sandhills cellophane bee nesting burrow
Sandhills cellophane bee nesting burrows.

Many of the photos above come from the Backyard Blog. WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas has been chronicling the plants and animals in his yard since 2018, paying close attention to insects.


SUBSCRIBE

Like what you read? Love natural north Florida? Subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog. You might also enjoy our ecology podcast, Coast to Canopy, and the WFSU Ecology YouTube channel.


We’d love to hear from you! Leave your comments below.

Click to browse Backyard Blog posts
Facebook Comments
Share FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more outdoor adventures, and an in depth look at our local forests and waterways by Email.

If you do not receive a verification e-mail, check your spam folder.

Category

iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

iNaturalist


View robdv’s observations »

Most Recent

  • Fireflies of Florida | Coast to Canopy Episode 4
  • Life on the Ocean Floor, and Why It’s a Hard Place to Explore | Coast to Canopy Episode 3
  • Methane and Microbes at the Ocean Floor | The Science of Secrets of the Seep
  • A History of Fire in Tree Rings | Coast to Canopy Episode 2
  • No Mow March & Rewilding in North Florida | Coast to Canopy Episode 1

The WFSU Ecology and Education teams at the UF/IFAS Leon County Extension Open House and Plant Sale, May of 2025. Photo by Clara Mullins.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Youtube

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign

The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About the WFSU Ecology Blog
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • Secrets of the Seep: A Voyage into the Mysteries of Ocean Carbon
    • Finding the First Floridians: Underwater Archeologists Uncover Florida’s Prehistory
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Wasps of North Florida: The Bad, the Ugly, and the (yes, really) Good
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources