These small- to
medium-sized bees may be any of a wide range of colors: metallic red, black,
blue, green, or copper. Usually no distinctive spots or bands are present.
Length ranges from 8.5 to 17 mm.
Several wild bee species
build nests in the soil. They are
most common, in soils with sparse to moderate plant growth, little organic
matter, and good drainage.
Essentially beneficial insects, wild bees
feed on the nectar of many plants and gather pollen for the larvae to feed upon
and are excellent pollinators of vegetable and fruit crops.
They prefer to nest in soils with a sparse
vegetative cover, As the bees tunnel in the soil, the excavated dirt forms
mounds 1.5 to 6.0 cm wide and 0.25 to 1.5 cm high. The bees are often
exterminated out of fear of their stinging but Wild bees seldom sting unless
stepped upon or squeezed.
Wild bees generally overwinter in their soil
burrows as adults. They emerge by early April and begin digging new burrows. The
burrow consists basically of a vertical shaft 8 to 15 cm deep. The number and
size of side tunnels varies with the particular bee species. Unlike some bees,
soil-nesting species are not social in that each female makes her own nest,
provisions it with food, and lays eggs. There is no worker caste. The bees,
however, are gregarious and often nest closely together. However, there is no
"nest guarding" instinct.
bees first begin to fly in early spring. Mating takes place soon afterwards and
females begin storing pollen in burrows. Furnishing each cell of their burrow
with a pollen ball 3 to 5 mm in diameter, females then deposit a single egg on
each pollen ball. Eggs hatch in early May. Throughout the summer, the larvae
feed and develop within the burrows. Pupation occurs in later summer, usually in
August. With some species, adult bees develop sometime in the fall but remain in
their burrows to overwinter. Other species overwinter as larvae. A single
generation is completed each year.